“There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” — Galatians 3:28 NIV

For my sixth birthday my parents bought me a brand new bicycle. It was a shiny metallic blue. It was dangerously fast. Unfortunately, after possessing it for only one week, it was stolen. A group of Mexican-American boys took it from me by force.

I was fearful of brown-skinned people for years after that incident, assuming they were all as likely to bully me as those boys. Of course, this was a negative bias I had developed out of limited experience. In time, I would make close friendships with many people of color.

Prejudice against others based on race, ethnicity, gender, or any other physical trait is a product of a fallen world. We forget too easily that all humans are made in God’s image, and this truth, all by itself, suggests we ought to treat everyone as sisters and brothers.

As a high school student, Martin Luther King Jr. wrote,

“My heart throbs anew in the hope that inspired by the example of Lincoln, imbued with the spirit of Christ, [America] will cast down the last barrier to perfect freedom, and I with my brother of blackest hue possessing at last my rightful heritage and holding my head erect, may stand beside the Saxon—a Negro—and yet a man!”*

Lord God, thank you for showing us mercy without partiality. Give us strength to seek perfect unity in Christ. Help us love each other as true equals. Amen.