We sat quietly as the dawn began to break, the landscape around us shifting from grayscale to color. Jim was reviewing the images he had captured while I organized notes and listened to a dove measure time with a drum-beat song.
As he sat, cropping and adjusting contrast on the pictures, he said, “We are all the same. It really is true.”
He shared with me that, when viewed through a vectorscope, our differences fade. Color washes away. Melanin and blood blend together to create one shade: flesh. We are unique in hue, but what makes us the same eclipses what makes us different.
Perhaps that’s why smiles always look good on everyone, why love always complements the one who is wearing it, why things like forgiveness and belonging and kindness are as meaningful in a mud hut as they are in a mansion. Perhaps that’s why Good News is truly good.
We. are. all. the. same.
Every item of your new way of life is custom-made by the Creator, with his label on it. All the old fashions are now obsolete. Words like Jewish and non-Jewish, religious and irreligious, insider and outsider, uncivilized and uncouth, slave and free, mean nothing. From now on everyone is defined by Christ, everyone is included in Christ.
So, chosen by God for this new life of love, dress in the wardrobe God picked out for you: compassion, kindness, humility, quiet strength, discipline. Be even-tempered, content with second place, quick to forgive an offense. Forgive as quickly and completely as the Master forgave you. And regardless of what else you put on, wear love. It’s your basic, all-purpose garment. Never be without it. (Colossians 3)