We are More Alike, My Friends…

Made in the Image of God

Here is a devotional to orient you, Dear Reader, for this upcoming week.

You’ll find psalm, poem, scripture, and blessing.

May it give your spirit what it needs and may you find fresh layers to your faith and your unity with others through these words from the Holy Bible and Maya Angelou.

Harmony of Peoples

How wonderful, how beautiful,

    when human beings get along!

It’s like costly anointing oil

    flowing down head and beard,

Flowing down Aaron’s beard,

    flowing down the collar of his priestly robes.

It’s like the dew on Mount Hermon

    flowing down the slopes of Zion.

Yes, that’s where God commands the blessing,

    ordains eternal life.

Psalm 133

Human Family

I note the obvious differences
in the human family.
Some of us are serious,
some thrive on comedy.

Some declare their lives are lived
as true profundity,
and others claim they really live
the real reality.

The variety of our skin tones
can confuse, bemuse, delight,
brown and pink and beige and purple,
tan and blue and white.

I’ve sailed upon the seven seas
and stopped in every land,
I’ve seen the wonders of the world
not yet one common man.

I know ten thousand women
called Jane and Mary Jane,
but I’ve not seen any two
who really were the same.

Mirror twins are different
although their features jibe,
and lovers think quite different thoughts
while lying side by side.

We love and lose in China,
we weep on England’s moors,
and laugh and moan in Guinea,
and thrive on Spanish shores.

We seek success in Finland,
are born and die in Maine.
In minor ways we differ,
in major we’re the same.

I note the obvious differences
between each sort and type,
but we are more alike, my friends,
than we are unalike.

We are more alike, my friends,
than we are unalike.

We are more alike, my friends,
than we are unalike.

Maya Angelou

In the Image of God

So God created mankind in his own image,
in the image of God he created them;
male and female he created them.

God saw all that he had made, and it was very good. And there was evening, and there was morning—the sixth day.

Genesis 1:27, 31

A Blessing for Your Week

Beloved Child of God,

May God heighten your awareness
Of the interconnectedness of peoples
May you see that we are more alike,
My friends, Than we are unalike,
And may lines of connection reveal themselves
Bit by bit until you see the network of persons:
The human family
May your spirit spark recognize
The spirit spark in others,
And May Your living honor the fact
That you, like we all, are made
In the Image of God

Amen.