10.7- Our Welcoming God
10.7-
Our
Welcoming God Acts
10:34-38 Winn Collier
Our church meets in an old elementary
school, one that closed in 1958 rather than obey a US court order to integrate
(the act of having African-American students attend schools previously attended
by only Caucasian students). The following year, the school reopened and Elva,
now a member of our church, was one of those black students who were thrust
into a white world. “I was taken out of my safe community, with teachers who
were part of our life,” Elva recalls, “and placed in a scary environment in a
class with only one other black student.” Elva suffered because she was
different, but she became a woman of courage, faith and forgiveness.
Her witness is profound because of how much
evil she endured at the hands of some members of a society that denied the
truth that every human being, regardless of race or heritage, is loved by God.
Some members of the early church struggled with this same truth, believing that
certain people were, by birth, loved by God while others were rejected. After
receiving a divine vision, however, Peter stunned everyone who would listen
with this astounding revelation: “I now realize how true it is that God does
not show favoritism but accepts from every nation the one who fears him and
does what is right” (Acts 10:34-35).
God opens His arms wide to extend love to
everyone. May we do the same in His power.
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