I recently came across this picture. That’s me, on the far right, with the knock-knees and white tights. This was my 6th birthday and these were “My People.”
Six girls. One boy.
Three Kindergartners. Two 1st graders. Two Preschoolers.
Three blondes. Four brunettes.
Four first-borns. Three middle-children.
Three Methodists. One Lutheran. Three Catholics.
None of this mattered. We were just friends. Our differences didn’t threaten our unity because we weren’t threatened by our differences….yet.
When did differences come to define our friendships? When did it matter what grade we were in or what denomination we belonged to? One of the beautiful parts of a small-town upbringing is these differences don’t actually matter much. When you’re each other’s only options, it’s easier to focus on things of “first importance.”
- Do you live within my boundaries? (Of course, the older we got, the further from home we could venture.)
- Do you have complimentary Barbie furniture so together we can make a whole set?
- Do you have an EZ Bake oven?
- Are you willing to play school? House? (Thankfully we had our one boy to play the dad!)
Then we all grew up and moved away from that small town and I realized the wide-world of adulthood…especially among many people who call themselves Christians…doesn’t work this way. Differences (as well as perceived differences) matter. A lot. And, somewhere along the way, I noticed an often-unspoken, under-current of animosity between Catholics and Protestants. We have the biggest reason of all to be unified, yet there is a Great Wall of division that separates.
That is the reason for this blog. Together we will explore ways we can become more unified by disarming our differences. In 1 Corinthians 15:3-5, Paul writes:
For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. (Emphasis added)
What did Paul define as “of first importance”?
- Christ died for our sins.
- He was buried.
- He was raised on the third day.
- He appeared to the Disciples.
This the truth of what unites Believers of all denominations. Beyond this, can we learn to trust the work of God in one another and together remain anchored to grace?
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