“It takes no grace to relate to someone who looks, thinks, and acts just like me.”

A thought by Philip Yancey (2014-10-21) from his book, Vanishing Grace: What Ever Happened to the Good News? (p. 37). Zondervan. Kindle Edition. (Click on the title to go to Amazon.com to buy the book.)

Now if Christ would have taken the attitude that He only wanted to be with someone just like Him then for sure He would have never come to earth. I mean He was God. But we have a tendency to only be around people just like us but that isn’t what He did.

Philip quotes Jonathan Sacks, who was the former chief rabbi of Great Britain and he said, “The Hebrew Bible [Old Testament] in one verse commands, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself,’ but in no fewer than 36 places commands us to ‘love the stranger.’ ” He adds, “The supreme religious challenge is to see God’s image in one who is not in our image.”

And then Philip says, “All too often Christians take the opposite approach. Some demonize opponents, branding them ‘secular humanists’ or ‘heretics’ or ‘perverts,’ and then retreat into a fortress mentality.”

I’m challenged by what Jonathan Sacks says, “The supreme religious challenge is to see God’s image in one who is not in our image.” I spend a lot of time in Starbucks where the homeless come in to sit. My supreme challenge is to see God’s image in them and to not be judgmental of their situation. But Jesus doesn’t do that to me. He didn’t come to this world to condemn me but to love me, accept me and be gracious to me.

Oh how I need Him living and loving through me.

How about you?

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