When we draw lines to separate ourselves from those who are different, from those whom we don't understand, what we're really doing is protecting ourselves from our own weakness, fear and failure.

But our weakness, fear and failure unite us with others. These shared human experiences bind us. Not everyone today will know acceptance, affirmation and love, but all of us will stumble, trip and fall…emotionally, intellectually, spiritually.

And precisely because of our weakness, fear and failure, we need these (seemingly separate) others. They offer what we are missing. They may be the ones who catch us.

The very thing we do to protect ourselves keeps us from wholeness. We are all pieces in the same divine jigsaw puzzle. We are all ingredients in the same delicious recipe of transcendence.

Text and image © 2010 by Dirk deVries. All rights reserved.