Life lessons

 

As mother’s day has been drawing near, I’ve been reflecting on the impact my mother had on my life.  One of the most important things she taught me, I feel is especially important now.  Whenever I had conflict with anyone, she was quick to point out that each of us is made in the image of God.  She challenged me to try to look at things from the other person’s perspective and put myself in their place (as is commonly taught).  But she took it further than just that.  She pushed me to look for God’s likeness in them.   It’s right there in the very first chapter of the Bible.

So God created human beings in his own image. Genesis 1:27

Looking at this world, it seems as though people will quickly accept that they themselves are made in God's image... but they don't always want to view others through the same lense.  Here in Lebanon there's a Kafala system.  It often equates to modern day slavery.  People from even poorer countries will come to Lebanon to work and send money back home to support their families.  Unfortunately, the employers are allowed to keep their passports and the workers are often overworked, underpaid and abused with little to no consequences for their employers.   It's easy to call it out as sinful and wrong because it is.  But when will we remove the planks in our eyes too.  My parents have taught me to be aware of my white privilege before it had a label.  This was not to make me feel guilty for the advantages I had but rather to be aware that just as some things came through no effort of my own, some disadvantages came through no fault of their own.

I lavish unfailing love to a thousand generations.     I forgive iniquity, rebellion, and sin. But I do not excuse the guilty.     I lay the sins of the parents upon their children and grandchildren; the entire family is affected—     even children in the third and fourth generations.” Exodus 34:7

Our actions will effect our children and grandchildren just as the actions of our grandfathers and great grandfathers have effected us.  Those actions of our grandfathers and great grandfathers have also effected those they oppressed.  We look at slavery and call it sinful.  We look at previous generations and wonder how some of the behaviors were justified.  But we fail to look at the sins of those that came before us and stop it from becoming the sins of our own generation.  We dismiss white privilege as nonexistent and fail to cry out for justice to be served.   In my lifetime alone I have watched the KKK march in the town I grew up in with police protecting their right to free speech.  My family has been asked not to bring people to church because they are black children.  My family stopped their membership at a club pool because black people weren't allowed to swim there. One time as an adult I was told by a black member of the community how much my dad had meant to him.  He'd challenged a civic club to be... civic.  It wasn't something my dad had even shared with me, but he stood up for what was wrong.   I could talk about each of these but I think one of the things that I've thought of most this week though is the guy I liked in high school.  We'd become good friends but he said to me one day that he could never date me because my parents would kill him since he's black.  At the time I didn't recognize the truth in his statement because for me, it wasn't true.  He later got to know my parents and my mom just shared that he called them just last week.  But it easily could have been true for some other white girl.  I'm sure it had been drilled into his head from the time he was little that some people were off limits.  His life depended on it.   There are so many life lessons that I've learned from my parents.  I'm not colorblind.  They didn't teach me to be.  They taught me that while people may look different, they are made as much in God's image as I am.   I pray our girls grow up knowing the same.