My neighbor and my family...

​"Make sure that nobody pays back wrong for wrong, but always try to be kind to each other and to everyone else." ~ 1 Thessalonians 5: 15

Thomas Merton, was an American Catholic writer and mystic. A Trappist monk of the Abbey of Gethsemani, Kentucky, he was a poet, social activist, and student of comparative religion.

His real journey began when he stepped off a bus in downtown Louisville, Kentucky and had an epiphany that all the people he saw were his brothers and sisters and that he loved each one. (Of course there is much more to Merton, but this is one of many wonderful things he shares about his life.)

Have you ever considered this to be a fact about the Kingdom of God?  That every person you encounter is a brother or sister?

It's kinda interesting, especially when you hear of so much conflict, and witness such awful things we seem to do to one another. 

I told a friend the other day when someone remarked, "God has a special place for people like that..."

I remarked, "Yes God does, they become the greeters at the Pearly Gates of heaven and welcome you in."

Being family, or where I'm from we call them "kin" is just short of the word kind. 

Being kind to one another is a human attribute families often attribute to one another. At least I hope that's the case. 

To be kind is to reach out to one another in a kindred spirit and to see each other as part of the family of God. 

The great challenge is this: All people, whatever their color, religion, or sex, belong to humankind and are called to be kind to one another, treating one another as brothers and sisters.

There is hardly a day in our lives in which we are not called to this.

Stay in God's grip!

​G. Todd Williams (c) 2017