FOR ALL OF HUMANITY

After a year of fighting cancer, my sister passed away one week ago at the time of this writing. She was the older sister of us three girls. She was my mother’s wild child and my father’s freckled child, the one who looked just like him. She was my rock. My person. My older sister who I would follow relentlessly as a child. A huge chunk of who I am has gone away with her.

In the middle of this disorienting grief and sorrow that I am experiencing, I think of the sisters and brothers and parents and children who have died in the Israel/Gaza war. I sit in the quiet of night and I think about their loved ones’ grief unbearable for the circumstances in which they have died. My sister passed away in her bed with family surrounding her, lovingly saying goodbye. She was not brutally attacked or beheaded in her home in front of her children. She was not blown into unrecognizable bits by bombs or buried by buildings falling on her. I cannot even contemplate the grief for this.

I have read heart wrenching editorial pieces written by both Israelis and Palestinians. I try to understand the mangled history until my head hurts and the only place I can land is - for the love of God (and humanity) - please let this stop.

As disciples of Christ, surely we follow his example. Jesus, with loving kindness, spoke to the outcast Samaritan women, he invited himself to the despised tax collector’s home, he welcomed the sinner into his inner circle, and he forgave the religious leaders who killed him, “for they know not what they are doing”.  

Absolutely, the situation in Israel/Gaza is beyond complicated and I do not make light of this. World leaders and experienced diplomats grapple for a solution. As Christians, we have a responsibility to pray for and to hope for and to believe for peace. Peace on earth and goodwill to all men.

It is not for us to be counted amongst those who spew hate-speech, indulge in violent protests, or call for the death of people simply because of their race. It is for us to love. To love beyond our own understanding and to embrace empathy for all of humanity. For this is what Jesus did.

May we think on these things!