Going South by Susan L.

  I went down to my mom and step-dad's for Easter dinner yesterday after church. She lives about an hour and ten minutes south of me. It's not only directionally south but it's also down hill most of the way. My ears pop all the time from the change in altitude. Coming back it's the same but the car has to work all the harder to get me uphill and home.
  The night was rolling in as I left but at least the snow flurries had stopped. It was the hour, just as the sun goes down, when deer get on the move. There are favorite paths they take so a lot of the drive had me scanning the shoulders of the road for any sign of them. I am thankful the larger than normal volume of traffic kept them away from the roads because I didn't see any. The only wildlife was a brown rabbit that crossed in front of me just outside the gate at my mom's condo. Could he be called an Easter bunny?
  When I arrived at my mom's, there was an East Indian family standing inside the vestibule. As I opened the inside door with the electronic fob, they came into the building behind me. Suspicion tickled my mind as one of the building's security protocol was broken. No one is to be let into the building unless they are known.
   They shared who they were visiting and jokingly commented about "following" me as we waited for the elevator. I laughed and said it might throw my mom for a loop if we all showed up for dinner! We laughed and chatted for the few moments it took to reach the seventh floor. It was one of the most pleasant elevator rides ever. As I got off, they wished me a Happy Easter.
  A whole whack of assumptions got flushed down the toilet.
  They weren't pretty, I am sad to say.
  They very well could have been brothers and sisters in Christ but me, in my quickness to judge and to stereotype automatically assumed they were not. Shame on me.
  And if they weren't, more shame on me for not truly portraying Christ's love for all people. In voice, I was friendly enough but my heart is another matter.
  Forgive me, Lord. Help me grow. In Jesus' Name, amen.
  "For You were slain, and have redeemed us to God by Your blood out of every tribe and tongue and people and nation, and have made us kings and priests of our God; and we shall reign on the earth." Rev 5:9-10