Only Light Can Do ThatSample

"Human worth lies in relatedness to God. An individual has value because he has value to God. Whenever this is recognized, 'whiteness' and 'blackness' pass away … and 'son' and 'brother' are substituted." Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

“Time for class!” Mrs. Jane Elliott called to the third graders. Before the school day began, Mrs. Elliott wanted to make some special rules. On this day, blue-eyed boys and girls would be the first to eat, first to go to recess, and would be allowed to drink from the water fountain. “Brown-eyed children must use paper cups. They cannot touch the fountain,” she said.

Mrs. Elliott wanted to demonstrate the injustice of prejudice. She wanted to show her students that people all have the same value, and they should not be segregated based on a physical feature.

Eventually, both the brown-eyed kids and the blue-eyed kids experienced being treated unfairly and treating their classmates unfairly.

A few truths came from this lesson:

• Mistreating people because of a physical feature doesn’t make sense.
• It is easy to become the person who mistreats another.
• People feel small when they are mistreated because of a physical feature.
• When one group treats another group as less valuable, both groups suffer.

God does not treat people better or worse because of any feature—not their money, where they live, where they go to school, or what kind of devices they have. God does not treat people differently depending on their skin color either. His love is too big to be limited! Every human is made in the image of God. This alone gives every one of us worth. When we hurt or make fun of other people because of how God made them, we are disagreeing with God.

Dr. King based his civil rights actions on what he knew about God. He knew that God valued all people and that we are born with worth simply because God made us and loves us. Dr. King believed that the officers who hauled him to jail were valuable to God, just as much as he believed that his own children were valuable to God.

Peace comes when we honor everyone’s God-made differences and understand that we are all loved and valued by God.

God loves you—a lot. And God loves your neighbors, your classmates, your relatives, and even your enemies.

Know your worth. Know your neighbor’s worth.

Holy Spirit, help me treat everyone with the same love—Yours.