Pickles

"Have you ever looked in a pickle jar and seen two pickles that were exactly alike? We are all pickles - each one is a little bit different." Yesterday I was rehabbing my knee when I heard the voice of one of the physical therapists responding to the question of one his clients as to how her injury compared with others in the room.

While I can't claim to having ever heard that specific analogy before, it struck me as being particularly apt. Sunday evening in life group we were talking about the differences in how we respond to scripture based on our own natural predisposition and personality. As a church we have been practicing the discipline of Dwelling in the Word, and these differences are sometimes pronounced and sometimes subtle nuance, but they are consistently present.

Sometimes we can get so focused on the differences between us it can be easy to forget that the similarities are far greater. Differences in language, in skin color, in socio-economic status, in politics; the differences that tend to separate and isolate us - these diminish when we consider that we are all pickles. Each of us is a little bit different from the next, but we are pickles nonetheless.