Reaching Out to Those Different than Ourselves

⁷ A Samaritan woman came to draw water, and Jesus told her, “Please give me a drink,” ⁸ since his disciples had gone off into town to buy food.  ⁹ The Samaritan woman asked him, “How can you, a Jew, ask for a drink from me, a Samaritan woman?” Because Jews do not have anything to do with Samaritans.^{[c]   10} Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who is saying to you, ‘Please give me a drink,’ you would have been the one to ask him, and he would have given you living water.”---  John 4:7-10

I hope you had a good Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday whether you worked or had the day off from your job.   This  holiday always motivates me to think about relationships between people of different races.   I got to thinking about race relations early this year because of a Facebook discussion about some events in my high school days.    Any of you ever seen the movie “Remember the Titans” about a high school in Virginia that hires a black football coach at a predominately white high school?   That story was lived out in my high school in Burlington NC in 1970.   My high school, Walter Williams High School in Burlington, was the first predominately white high school in the south to hire a black football coach.    A matter of fact, a book was written about the experience titled Black Coach by Pat Jordan.   I began thinking about that time and those experiences when a high school classmate asked some of us to come speak to her high school class about civil rights and race relationships.

In anticipation of the integration of our high school with the local black high school that would be closing,   students from our high school in the Spring 1970 spent a day in classes at the black high school getting to know the students.     I must admit that I had spent limited time with black persons until that experience.   That day with those students at Jordan Sellers High School changed  my perspective.   Black persons were no longer persons to fear. 

In John 4 (a portion of which is printed above),  we see Jesus reach out to a Samaritan woman even though they did not see things the same way.  This was not the first and only time that Jesus reached out to those different than him.   If I want to be more like Jesus, I need to do the same.  When I do that, I find myself being richly blessed.    Have a joy-filled week.- Pastor Randy Wall

Prayer:  Lord and God, your love knows no boundaries.  I am grateful for the love of God that crosses  all the boundaries humans create.   Help me go and do likewise;  through Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen.