A Love that Reconciles

Hello again! First of all, an apology for my lack of posts for the past week - I was in Santiago Atitlan, a small rural Mayan town in Guatemala. A group of students from my med school went down to do a service project on maternal health. I have lots and LOTS of stories that I'm sure I will chat about more later, but for now, I wanted to talk a little bit about God's presence in Santiago. Santiago is one of the most beautiful places I've ever seen - it's a small town set on a gorgeous lake surrounded by 3 volcanos. It's also one of the most remote. To get there, we had to take a grueling 4 hour bus ride from the main airport in Guatemala City, following roads that weren't particularly well paved. As Santiago was a Mayan village, when I first arrived, I did not expect to see much of an influence of Christ in the community. Boy was I wrong. Despite the remote nature of Santiago, it's been reached by many, many missionaries and many of the people have come to accept Christ. I was lucky enough to attend an Ash Wednesday service with the community. It was such a wonderful experience to praise the Lord in another language with people so completely different than me. Walking around after the service, I talked to a family who ran a store I visited and had a sweet conversation about how they also believed in Christ. I couldn't help but be struck by how God has the power to reconcile all people to His family.

Therefore, remember that formerly you who are Gentiles by birth and called “uncircumcised” by those who call themselves “the circumcision” (which is done in the body by human hands)— remember that at that time you were separate from Christ, excluded from citizenship in Israel and foreigners to the covenants of the promise, without hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near by the blood of Christ.

For he himself is our peace, who has made the two groups one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility, by setting aside in his flesh the law with its commands and regulations. His purpose was to create in himself one new humanity out of the two, thus making peace, and in one body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross, by which he put to death their hostility. He came and preached peace to you who were far away and peace to those who were near. For through him we both have access to the Father by one Spirit.

Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow citizens with God’s people and also members of his household, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone. In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit. - Ephesians 2:11-22

I absolutely love this section in Ephesians - it is amazing that Christ can reconcile such different groups, His chosen people the Israelites and the gentile Ephesians, to each other and to Himself. He not only created peace between the two groups, but created a new humanity. Not only that, both Israelite and Gentile Christians are built together into a place for the Lord to dwell in an active and living way. If that's not radical, I don't know what is. Thinking about these verses and my time in Guatemala together, I am struck by how we are one community with all Christians, regardless of their differences from us. I am also amazed that God's love is so strong that it will travel to the ends of the earth to reconcile others to Himself. I know I often judge others when they are different from me, but I feel like these verses really challenge us to be unified as a body of Christ. I pray that today, we can look past earthy differences of those in Christ and be united as a body.