Child of God

When we deny that the person in front of us is a child of God

no matter what their color, sexual orientation, language, creed,

wealth (or lack thereof),

mental health status,

education level,

or addiction -

 

When we cannot see them as a precious soul who is part of all that is Sacred,

and shares that in common with us

 

When we cannot see that we are all bound together

by the Sacred DNA that is in all of us

and in which we all participate

 

Then we start to objectify and dehumanize

 

In that moment we choose to deny them

their inheritance

 

As they wander into our lives

Asian massage parlor worker

Brown skinned immigrant fleeing abuse and death

Black person who stirs our fear

 

That person with a scattered mind, muttering to themselves on the street corner

Or that one whose gender identify or sexual orientation confuses and disturbs

 

That one who calls God by another name

Or speaks another language

Or dresses differently

Or is dirty, or smells

 

That one with the rainbow flag

That one with the Confederate flag

 

We see them coming

And we refuse to do what Sacred does

 

see them as a beloved child

wanted and welcome

 

and we become the “elder child”

muttering under our breath

sulking in the field

refusing to welcome, refusing to welcome them to the family table

(Luke 15)

 

And the moment we do that we can deny them the right to vote. 

We can choose to let them go hungry. 

We can ignore that they have no place to live. 

We can refuse to welcome them into our country, our community, our church. 

 

In that moment we take away their faces

and we rob them of their voice

 

and they become objects

creatures

less than human

 

In that moment we can abuse them and use them.

And we can even kill them.

 

Oh God Lord, let the faces of those we would reject haunt us,

even as they frighten us, anger us, condemn us

 

for that face is the face of our brother, our sister

your child

 

let us never forget that this one we see

is a member of your family

a Sacred child

a person with a face

your face

__________________________________________________

 

It is true that God stands with God’s people through every trial, but not so that they will sit comfortably with the privilege of apparent divine favor. Now they have to stand in solidarity with, graciously receive and welcome the vulnerable ones within their community and beyond it whom they might find it most difficult to accept: the orphan, the widow, the stranger, The Other. God has done it for them. Now they are called to respond in kind, literally imitating the God who graciously welcomed them. . . . Stephanie Spellers, Radical Welcome: Embracing God, the Other, and the Spirit of         Transformation (Church Publishing, Inc.: 2006), 36–38.