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Friends United Meeting |
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January/February 2006
by Retha McCutchen, FUM General Secretary
It snowed in Indiana in December while I was basking in 80-degree sunshine in Ramallah! Really snowed! Those of us on the Israel/Palestine visit made many snide comments about not missing the cold and snow at home. My car was parked in the alley behind the condo.
Monday morning I was faced with 8" of ice on the car. The task was beyond the ability of an ice scrapper, so I used the snow shovel. Expending all the energy I had, I chipped away enough ice to see out the front window and drove to work hoping time on the parking lot would soften the snow and solve my problem. Noon came. No change in the condition of the car. Driving through Richmond the solution popped into my mind—the car wash!
First time through the automatic car wash softened the icy crust. The final cycle is those huge, heated blowers that dry the vehicle. Under the influence of the blowers, there was an ice storm in the car wash building. It was delightful to sit inside the warm car and watch chucks of ice crash the windows and walls. Then I drove around and restarted the process. After two runs through the car wash, the problem was solved.
The recurring theme of this Israel/Palestine trip was forgiveness. We heard forgiveness expressed by an Israeli father who lost a 14-year-old daughter in a Palestinian suicide bombing and by a Palestinian couple whose 12- year-old daughter was killed when Israeli soldiers attacked their car by mistake. Forgiveness in these proportions is beyond the scope of most of our experience.
Father Elias Chacour clearly stated that we are not helpful if we take sides in a conflict. Loving our enemies and making them our friends is the only path to peace. Jesus taught that lesson on a mountainside in Galilee. Forgiveness must begin within us, move to our family and friends, work associates, neighborhood, church and country before we are called to speak more broadly.
My prayer is that the hot wind of the Holy Spirit will blow as strongly as that machine in the car wash—blowing away from my life and yours the chucks of pride, selfish ambition and unforgiveness that blinds our eyes. Then, may the peace of Christ invade our thoughts, actions and speech to offer hope to those we meet.