The need to divide

My daughter the math teacher might think I am finally getting around to discussing the importance of good arithmetic skills.  Not.

I am talking about dividing people.  Into groups.  Where some groups are better and some are not.  You can call those groups Us and Them. Good and Not Good.  Right and Wrong.  Straight and Gay.  Christian and All the Other People who are Wrong.  White and People of Color.

Can you see where I am going with this?  We have an inherent need to divide.  Learning theory teaches us that we use categories to help us organize information.  Creating categories is a critical step in the learning process because it enables us to manage and derive meaning from large quantities of information.  Dogs bark, love to jump into the water, are loyal, work in packs.  Cats meow, hate water, have a well practiced 'go away' look, and are loners.

God has categories as well; Jesus makes them known to us.  God's categories are these:  Those whom God loves in and through Jesus and...........Nobody.  The entire creation is in the Loved category.  No one is in the Not Loved category.

Certainly simplifies things.  I am loved.  You are loved. Everyone is loved.

If God can love each of us, perhaps we should be working harder to find a way to do the same.  The divisions just aren't helpful, or faithful either for that matter.

"For God so loved the world that God gave his only begotten son that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.  Indeed, God did not send Jesus ino the world to condemn the world but in order that the world may be saved through him."  John 3.16-7

We do it.  Without thinking.  We talk about Us and Them.  So this is the task before us, to see Them as Us:  loved by God through Jesus, and being called into authentic life through forgiveness.  Just like us.

Our love of long division serves no purpose of God.