Tip of My Iceberg

Cousins converged on our home for spring break festivities. Not all the cousins; we missed our Denver and DC cousins, plus our college-bound cousins. Of the ones present, only one was a girl old enough to keep up with the boys.

They attended a soccer camp for the day; the beautiful game has become a family favorite. A competitive streak runs wide through all these cousins; they play hard, and they laugh harder.

What’s unique about them is their tight relationships. Even if it’s been months or longer, they pick up right where they left off. There’s a camaraderie that exists, which I wish more adults could emulate.

Even more surprising is that of all the cousins at this camp, all were boys, with one girl cousin. Brooklyn can hold her own with her cousins; she’s an amazing soccer player, and she picks up other sports fairly quickly. Her cousins recognize she’s a girl, but they treat her just like one of the guys. She can be ladylike when she chooses, dressing the part with panache.

She’s treated with love and companionship by her cousins.

Women haven’t always had the respect they deserve, being made in the image of God exactly as men have been. In first-century Judea, when Jesus walked on earth, women had few legal rights, and they were often viewed as property or second-class citizens. Even in America in the early twentieth century, women had very limited legal status, often connected to their husband’s or father’s status. They had no voting rights and limited their property ownership. In many states, women didn’t have any legal identity apart from their husbands. It didn’t matter how talented or smart women were. Their value was limited.

Jesus boldly changed the way women were treated when He acknowledged their value, treating them with respect and welcoming them into His inner circle of friends.

There was one incident where Jesus broke social, ethnic, and gender taboos to show dignity to a woman who was ostracized by many in her village. He and His disciples traveled through Samaria, an area of Israel often avoided by Jews because they viewed Samaritans as religiously and racially impure. Samaritans were a race of people that were a mix of Jews and Gentiles, often referred to as half-breeds. Jesus, alone while His men went to the town for food, approached this woman for water.

The woman was shocked because she knew that this Man was a Jew, and yet, he asked her, a woman, for a drink of water. This would have been an intolerable situation, but Jesus didn’t hesitate to share His need with her. When He told her He could offer her living water so she’d never thirst again, she desired that because it would spare her from having to get water when no one else was around.

Jesus understood her shame; she had been married five times, and the man she lived with then wasn’t her husband. (It needs to be understood that a man at that time had the power to write a certificate of divorce for his wife if she displeased him in any way.) But He didn’t condemn her; He showed her kindness and compassion, something even the women of her village wouldn’t do.

Jesus’ disciples were shocked when they saw Him talking to the Samaritan woman. She ran back to her village, “telling everyone, ‘Come and see a Man who told me everything I ever did! Could He possibly be the Messiah?’ So the people came streaming from the village to see Him.” John 4: 29-30.

Where others had treated this woman with disrespect and disdain, Jesus treated her with compassion and understanding.

No judgement. No exclusion.

Brooklyn enjoys her cousins as much as they enjoy her, not treating her any differently, even though she’s a girl. They embrace her in all they do.

Jesus also embraced all people, including those of a different ethnic or religious background. He saw all people as valuable, worth loving. Worth saving.

How do you view “different”?