Oh,sweet Jesus, here You go again, placing things in my hands with a grin and saying, “What cha going do about this, Jeanna’, do you see what I’m trying to tell you?”

This morning, He made sure I opened up my Bible app to this devotional about a touchy matter.

“Common Ground

Yesterday, we took a look at our differences. Today, we’re looking at what we all have in common.

We’re all images.
We’re all infected.
We’re all invited.
We’re all images. Every single one of us is a human being. To be human means to be made in the image and likeness of God. This is the beauty of the Christian story. The first page of the Bible answers the questions, “Do I matter? Is my life valuable? Does my life have a purpose?” with a resounding, “Yes!” In the very beginning, we are told that God created human beings in His image with dignity, value, and purpose. This means that no matter what you look like, what you’ve done, what you believe, or who you vote for, your life matters because you are made in the image of God.

This is true of all of us. Even when we don’t act like it. All of us are made in God’s image.

We’re all infected. Here’s the not-so-fun part. We’re all infected by sin. Sin is a disease of self-centeredness that causes us to see ourselves as greater and others as less than. Our sin wants to blind us to the image of God in others, and the image of God in ourselves. Seeing other people as “less-than” because they have different opinions on the things we care about or even disagree with us politically is just one of the many ways our sin blinds us to the image of God in others.

The disease of sin makes us forget who we are, and it makes us forget whose we are. If we are unaware of the danger of sin, it can be really easy to see them as the problem. But they are never problems to be solved. They are always people to be loved.

Don’t worry, though. There is good news.

We’re all invited. “Do you want to be made well?” This was the question Jesus asked a man who had been sick for many years. This is the question Jesus is asking all of us. Through His death and resurrection, Jesus made a way for us to be healed from the disease of sin and invited us to be a part of God’s plan to make all things new. Paul told us in his letter to the Roman church that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. This is how God demonstrated His love. He didn’t shout it from Heaven. He showed it in person. That person is Jesus. And now, we’re all invited to be a part of His family.

The people who drive you crazy on Facebook? Jesus died for them, too.

How do we move toward unity and away from division? We value our differences and find common ground.

Pray: God, help me to find common ground with the people I disagree with. Remind me that we are all images of You, we’re all infected by sin, and we’re all invited to follow Jesus.”

‘

So here I am, sipping coffee and writing my heart out once again because this devotional hits real close to my heart- my broken heart, my scarred heart and my wide open heart.

I’ve had just about all I can handle of the ugliness I keep seeing – families and friends and strangers – calling each other names, bashing them for who they voted for or didn’t vote for, excluding them, shaming them, all that kind of stuff.

Lord, almighty, I stop taking anything to heart or mind when it’s prefaced with words like “ libtards” or “Demonrats “ or “Orange Man, Muskrat, Trumpist”.

You know why?

Because deep down, this is what I believe- everybody is a little scared, a little wrong and a little right, and a little overwhelmed and a little bit hurt.

All of us.

There’s something else…when I see somebody making an ugly remark about somebody they don’t even know, it just riles me up.
Sometimes I DO know who they are referring to- the precious son of a beloved friend, the daughter of someone else, the survivor of assault, the person that’s fought addiction, the ‘holy roller’ that hides shame by pointing fingers, the hurting, the bitter and the lonely.

Every single one of us fits into that category at one time or another.

Damn straight.

It’s that simple.

Like this devotional says so perfectly clear – we’re all images.

ALL.

Period.

Which brings me to my favorite quote from C.S Lewis,” You don’t have a soul. You are a soul. You have a body.”

Get it? Every single one of us is a soul- created in the image of God- and He knows our worth.

We are worth being included in His kingdom, worth being invited into His Glory, being sought after and pursued, wanted and cherished.

Think about it.

Take a deep, deep breath and think about it.

Your soul is so sacred, so precious that He gave His life for it …. and Satan does his best to try to take your soul away.
Satan tries to divide, to isolate, to cause trouble and create chaos, chains, controversy and he does a damn good job of it.

A damn good job, indeed.

Instead of gathering at tables, we slam doors. Instead of talking face to face, we post ugly comments on Facebook, instead of offering grace, we pile on shame.

We do.

And that’s a crying shame.

I reckon it breaks the heart of The Father because He’s looking at each one of us and saying, “That’s MY child, that’s one I created,I formed that baby, fearfully and wonderfully, and I know every single thing about that person and I am so filled with love for them.”

He doesn’t play favorites. He doesn’t exclude a single soul.

He loves them ALL.

So shouldn’t we?
Shouldn’t I?
Shouldn’t you?

I’ll tell you another thing- I just don’t have it in me to go around acting like I am better than anyone else.

I’m not.
Never have been.
Never will be.

There’s this saying, “ Don’t be judging those that sin differently than you do.”

Isn’t that what we’re doing, though?

When we act ugly and talk dirty, point out every mistake, call names?

Yea, I think so, too.

You gotta remember that when you point one finger at somebody, three are pointing back at you.

That’s right.
These three things ( fingers) should be what you see.

Image.
Infected.
Invited.

Do your part. Listen to the heartbeat that God gave you, the same heartbeat He gave everybody and open that heart up to the way He loves you, them, all of us.

There you go.

Sweet Jesus. I’m listening to You talking..I will bake and invite. I promise.

I’ll invite. It may just be me and you, Jesus, but that’s more than enough…and I got a feeling You already got the rest up Your sleeve and You are just waiting to see how I’m gonna handle this.