If you have any encouragement from being united with
Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any fellowship
with the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, then
make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the
same love, being one in spirit and purpose.
Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but
in humility consider others better than yourselves.
Philippians 2:1-3 NIV
I
remember the first time my son looked through his new
microscope one Christmas morning. He was fascinated.
Later that afternoon after looking at salt crystals,
some dirt and the other slides that can prepared with
the kit, he began to venture out into his own world of
scientific discoveries.
“Mom, can I have some of your skin?”
Trust me, that question will stop a mom dead in her
tracks, wondering if maybe that third National
Geographic show on cannibals might have pushed her
little boy over the edge.
“My skin?”
“Yeah, I want to look at your skin and my skin under my
microscope.”
A
few minutes later we were both viewing our epithelial
layers side by side on the same slide.
“We are a lot a like, Mom.”
Granted, I didn’t need to look at skin cells under a
microscope to tell me that. We had the same color of
hair, same color of eyes, same skin tone, same stubborn
nature…we were two peas in a pod created by God to be
Mother and Son.
As my son looked at me smiling, seemingly thrilled that
we would be similar in design, as far as skin cells go,
I smiled back and agreed with him.
As a Mom, I know I am not always like my children.
Sometimes we are so different in ways of thought and
opinion that we are divided on some of the little
issues. Sometimes our same stubborn nature and foolish
pride puts us in opposing corners. Sometimes it is his
wanting to grow up quicker than his maturity level and
believing that Mom doesn’t know what she is talking
about. Sometimes it is Mom thinking she knows best and
not realizing that on occasion Mom’s knowledge may be
based on my own insecurities or fears.
The Bible teaches us to go beyond our selves and the
little things that divide us. In doing this we are more
unified, and realize that we are alike on many levels –
and our love for each other is not just superficial or
“skin deep”.
We don’t need to go ask for skin cells from our
children, our grandchildren, our families, our spouses,
or our brothers and sisters in Christ and look at these
things under a microscope to see how similar we all are.
All we need to realize is that we were all created by
God, we all have the opportunity to be saved by grace,
and we all have a common purpose of glorifying God with
our lives.
