spiritual amnesia

I greeted a friend at church Sunday.
With her, an elementary age girl I had not met...

"Who's this?" smiling, expecting a name...
"A little girl from the projects..." nonchalance, a wave of the hand...

I stood stunned -- tried not to show it -- but stunned.
Not because of where the little girl came from, but because of my friend's remark.

You see, she rode the same van, from the same apartment complex...
My first thought: Aren't you a little girl from the projects too?

She's in junior high. Her invitation to church came about four months ago. I remember her fears when she first considered attending youth group...
But now, she seems to have a new identity -- she's "in" -- this new little girl (her first visit to church) an outsider -- no name -- just a girl from the projects... oblivious to the slight... smiling flakes of donut glaze...

How quickly we forget...
inclusive...
exclusive...
How quickly we separate ourselves from others...

Of course, the truth is: I'm just a girl from the projects...
maybe not physically, but one who lived in spiritual poverty for more than thirty years.

We were once all spiritually destitute...
excluded...
outsiders...
Once "in" how quickly we forget...

...it is by grace you have been saved...

not from yourselves, it is the gift of God...

Ephesians 2:8

I'm so grateful that my friend feels "in"...

but she reminded me of a danger... spiritual amnesia...

I don't want to forget...

I don't want to exclude...

I don't want to separate myself from those who come from the same place as me...

Therefore, remember... remember... you were separate from Christ, excluded... without hope... without God... But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near through the blood of Christ.

Ephesians 3:11-13

Lord, keep me open to who I was, who I am in You, the price You paid, and that You paid it for all.

I don't want to forget...