Nikki's Reflection

Romans 12:9-13

One of my favorite artists is Jewel, who rose to fame in the 90’s. She is an Alaskan native who spent a year homeless at the age of 18. She has spoken of her experience seeing people greet a stray dog with loving kindness, but never even looking at her or much less welcoming her the way they did an animal. Her song “Hands” was written during this time and the line “in the end, only kindness matters” is a remembrance of those few who did show her kindness when many others looked so far down on her.  

I have been on a “downsize, declutter and reorganize” kick lately and as I was sifting through my stack of violin music, I came across two items that stirred my own memories from the 90’s. The first, a speech I wrote in High School, and the second, a letter from my little sister. 

The speech was about my trip with Encounter to DC and the letter was written by my sister as she adjusted with me being gone for a week or so. Both little pieces of paper tugged at my heart, and I was transported back to my youth. My speech described my first true brush with homelessness as I helped clean trash along the streets behind the White House. My eyes were opened to suffering I had never noticed before, and when I came back to Alton, I realized it existed here too, though like a shadow world, barely visible to passersby. 

During that time, my sister wrote about how she was bored, wondered what I was doing and told how she was looking forward to my return. When I came home she was happy to have me back, gave me her letter, and we fell right into the sisterhood rhythm; borrowing clothes without permission, teasing each other playfully while always knowing we have each other to share our lives with. Through perfectly woven moments of goodness, times of joy and holding on to hope during the hardest of times, we always know through the ups and downs of life we will hold space for one another.

Romans 12:10 states, we are “to love one another deeply as brothers and sisters." 

Love one another deeply. Did you know there are over 36 verses in the Bible that speak to Christ followers about loving one another? Peter, John, Paul and James have all written about loving one another as a fundamental teaching of Jesus. Jesus himself spoke about loving one another and in the Gospels there are many accounts of him showing us how to love one another through our words and actions. It is a major theme in the Bible. Yet it seems we fall short on loving one another.

As I reflect on my life I can’t help but ask “Can I greet a stranger on the street with the same loving welcome as when I greet my sister?” It is in Christ that we find this type of loving kindness. 

May our days be filled with the love from one another so joyfully described in this passage. 

Love Nikki