Is Jesus greater than our differences?

Once upon a time, there was a girl who thought that if it was conservative, it was right (and of course everyone else was wrong).

Then that girl grew up.

It was hard to let go of the simplicity in that black-and-white world, but what a delight to discover grey! And not only grey, but red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and purple - such a beautifully bright and colourful world!

But alas, her former black-and-white world remained heavily populated, and the two worlds often bumped up against each other. Things weren't always peachy in her new colourful world either. Always too liberal for some, too conservative for others, she struggled to find belonging and community amongst all the colour.

In time she came to realize that a good part of this struggle was because she was searching for her double, someone who agreed with her in every way. It was just another form of black-and-white, only now she was looking for just that right shade of blue-green-purple.

And so the story goes. That girl is me, that struggle is mine. Maybe you, my sister or brother, have a similar story, or maybe yours is very different, but I'm sure of one thing: we're all headed in the same direction. Always the journey onward, always the two-steps-forward-one-step-back, always the growth that frees us to find community in the least expected places.

I'm still waiting for my happily ever after, but maybe we can find a bit of that wholeness here on earth in the meantime. How? By uniting in our one similarity - Jesus.

This unity isn't one more stab at black-and-white uniformity. It's a unity that acknowledges and honours the sincerity in each of us. We can love each other through our disagreements. We can embrace kindness, serve one another, and assume the best in each other's intents.

So you're a Calvinist and she's a Catholic and he's gay, but we all love Jesus. Can Jesus be greater than all the rest? Can even that one similarity outweigh our many differences? Is Jesus bigger than our disagreements?

I like to think so.

What about you?

This post was written for inclusion in the Rally to Restore Unity. What can our unity do? Maybe it can bring clean water to those who need it. Donate at the Rally to Restore Unity Charity: Water campaign.