Simone Weil, a French thinker and Christian mystic from the first half of the 20th century is someone I am slowly beginning to become aware of. In fact recently I quoted her as a him, which exposed I did not do the basic of research on a her and (perhaps even more damning) gender bias. With this public confession out of the way, I pass along what came to my inbox from Inward/Outward not long ago:
"Two prisoners whose cells adjoin communicate with each other by knocking on the wall. The wall is the thing which separates them but is also their means of communication. It is the same with us and God. Every separation is a link."
It makes me wonder if the Christian message has something to say about the boundaries that separate us. Could those boundaries not only be the source of division but also the source of unity?
Could we use that which divides us to unify us then rather than chunking rocks at the wall to break it or over the wall to harm our neighbor? Is it possible to use the points of difference at an invitation to meet up with others and get to know more about why they feel, believe, think or act the way they do?
I do not agree with everyone, even those close to me, and when I think about the things that divide us are trivial to the amount of love and respect we have fostered over the years.
Relationships have the power to overcome the divisions, and the divisions that can be used to build the relationships. This is how Christians understand redemption. God using the point point of weakness to bring about strenght.