We are walking through a rice field. The sun is shinning down warming me as there is a gentle breeze cooling me. We walk in silence because we are doing listening prayer for the people we are about to visit. The house is owned by some members of the location Evangelical Free Church of India church and we are meeting them and other members there to share and be in community together.
Focusing on where I was stepping I had been looking down for a while. Then it hit me I am in India, it is Sunday, in each step I am finding my balance on the little path that separates the fields, and it’s a great day. As I ask the Lord if there is anything he wants me to tell these people I look up. The wind blows and this big, flower filled tree in front of me sways, the sun shines down on it, and I see beauty. This natural beauty that just warms my heart and allows me to see the Lord and his love in that moment. My focus has turned and now I am looking at this beautiful land and telling the Lord how creative He is.
The Lord then said Amber you see this beauty? I said yes it’s beautiful, then he said you see the sepration? My heart hurt because I saw the separation and not only in the rice fields but in the community and religion. This community had two Church’s of different denominations in less then a block, down the road and around the corner another on was being built. I remeber another town I had been in had at least for different denominations that were all within a few blocks of each other. Then I thought of my home in Oklahoma and how my church sits on the same street at two or three other church’s.
We separate because people view things differently. Sometimes it’s one thing and sometimes it’s many things that people all see or understand in different ways. In the end the base is the same that God sent His only son to live and then die for us. Why is it that we become so prideful and believe how we understand a verse or part of the Bible is the only correct way and others are the one who are wrong.
Galatians 5:14
For the whole law can be summed up in this one command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.”
1 Corinthians 1:10
I appeal to you, dear brothers and sisters, by the authority of our Lord Jesus Christ, to live in harmony with each other. Let there be no division in the church. Rather, be of one mind, united in thought and purpose.
These rice fields were beautiful but they could be even more beautiful if they weren’t divided. Just as I was about to start the journey out of India it rained for three days with short stops here and there. Every rice field I saw on the car ride to the airport was overflowing. The dividers could no longer hold in what each section had.
1 Corinthians 12:12-13
The human body has many parts, but the many parts make up one whole body. So it is with the body of Christ. Some of us are Jews, some are Gentiles, some are salves, and some are free. But we have all been baptized into one body by one spirit, and we all share the same Spirit.
As the body of Christ each of us hold a different view of things. Although when we come together with our differences respecting the views coming from the arms, legs, ears, and other body parts we are truly loving our neighbors as ourselves. When we live a Christ filled, spirit lead life’s we are allowing the spirit and Christ to rain over and though us. Filling us up causing an overflow in each individual person but also in each denomination. Bring the walls of separation down and uniting in the same thing that is filling us up. Just as the rice fields were united in the rain water.
