There’s something I’ve noticed about humans.
You all sure do like to divide things.
By college teams
By denomination
By heritage and the way you look.
By Democrat and Republican.
By volunteers and spectators.
By cats and dogs.
Well, that last one is understandable. A dog has standards.
But I was sitting on the porch this morning watching my human drink his coffee and read his Bible. I could tell he was thinking hard. Every now and then he’d stop, sip his coffee, and stare off into the distance.
That usually means Jesus is teaching him something… or he’s trying to remember where he left his phone.
This morning, it was Jesus.
He was reading from John 17, where Jesus prayed for His followers. And what caught my attention was that Jesus didn’t just pray that His people would believe the right things.
He prayed that we would be one.
Not just tolerate one another.
Not just sit in the same room.
Not just agree on everything.
One.
“That they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me.”
- John 17:21 ESV
Now, I’m just a dog, but even I understand something about being one.
When my human calls me, I come running.
When he sits down, I sit beside him.
When he walks, I walk with him.
We may not agree on everything. For instance, I believe every meal should include bacon. He apparently has a different thought on that subject.
But we belong together.
And maybe that’s part of what Jesus was praying for.
Not that every believer would look alike, think alike, or have the same preferences.
But that we would belong to Him—and because we belong to Him, belong to one another.
The world already knows how to divide.
Jesus calls His church to something different.
One body.
One Lord.
One faith.
One family.
And maybe the question for me isn’t, “Who agrees with me?”
Maybe it’s, “Am I living in such a way that people can see Jesus in the way I love His people?”
Because unity isn’t pretending our differences don’t exist.
Unity is choosing Jesus above our differences.
I looked over at my human. He took another sip of coffee and turned the page.
I laid my head on his foot.
Seemed like the right thing to do.
After all, if an old dog can figure out that being together is better than being divided, surely Jesus Followers can learn the same lesson.
Jesus prayed that we would be one.
Maybe today we ought to start answering that prayer with the way we live.
Keep the Faith… Carpe Diem
