John 13:34-35 (NRSV)
"I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another."
There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus.
-Galatians 3:28 (NRSV)
MY eight-year-old daughter, Sara, and I were traveling by the night train from Paris to Berlin. We had our couchettes, our sleeping places, in a compartment that was fully booked. We shared the compartment with six adults and a little girl who was shouting and crying. My child could not sleep. Negative emotions overwhelmed me. Why couldn't our couchettes have been in another compartment? Why didn't the child's mother do something to stop her crying?
Finally the child's mother shouted at the little girl. I looked into her face, and I felt sorry for her. Poor woman! She must have felt helpless and embarrassed. "It's OK. Don't worry," I said; and I put my hand on the child's head. I started to pray in Polish. "Lord Jesus, please calm the child. Give her your peace, and let her sleep." I was stroking the child's head and singing quiet songs about Jesus. In a few minutes, she fell asleep. Her mother started to hum. Then I heard quiet words in an African dialect. But there was one word I could clearly recognize: Jesu sounded like my Polish Jezus. I squeezed the woman's hand and looked into her eyes, realizing that we both know Jesus.
