People are People Too

One of the most interesting aspects in our society is the intense categorization found within how we understand and deal with people. This is of course necessary. Human curiosity and the need to understand the world around us inevitably causes us to classify people places and things. It helps us to see the difference between the Bengal tiger and the Butterfly.

But this categorization can also get our of control and blind our eyes to the simplest of realities before us. In God's Church there are many different people with many different personalities and gifts. But they all have one thing in common. They are all people. They are all beautifully made in God's image. He did not make a mistake in creating them. And just as he loving made them, he sustains their life. His love also does not wax and wane with the "quality" of their life.

I was blessed to begin volunteering at a nursing home yesterday. My first task was to begin a bible study and then go upstairs to the level where they keep the Alhzeimer's patients. I had no idea what to expect before I arrived. I didn't know how lucid these people would be or how able they would be to be able to participate. In that moment, I made a key error. I didn't think of them as people. I thought of them as old people. I thought of them as elderly people. I stopped thinking of them as children of God.

In the scriptures we read that "wherever two or three are gathered in my name, there am I in your midst". Jesus wasn't specifying young people, or intelligent people. He wasn't setting a standard for a particular level of theological expertise.

The bible study itself was not as fruitful as I had hoped in that we didn't to discuss the scripture very much. But I didn't miss the point. We gathered together to praise God and to enjoy listening to his word. That was what he had wanted that day and we accomplished that.

As we go forward in ministry we must remember that there are too many labels for people. Our Christian brothers and sisters are not entries on an excel spreadsheet. They are human beings with souls loved by God in a way we cannot begin to understand. If we remember that, then we will be his people.