Human beings are built in the image of God in order to share what we have in common and what is uniquely different. Here are two examples.

My mother, the teacher, told the story of a downtrodden student she found wandering the playground of her elementary school. She asked the little boy why he was sad and he said that his friend was home sick. She empathized with him saying that must be difficult and he rocked her world with his answer. "Yes, I miss him, the boy exclaimed, we laugh the same language!" I think most of us would admit that humor is one of the keys to well-being, yet this kid took the similarity to the depth; "we laugh the same language." We humans are drawn to the familiar; our similarities and what we hold in common.

Yet, truth be told, opposites attract. I watched a human interest story featured on the news last week. Two four-year olds in Florida believed they were twins. They wanted to dress alike and do all their activities together. They wanted to hold everything in common; however one difference stands out. One girl is black while the other girl is white. Opposites attract; that's for sure! When an older kid stated that they couldn't possibly be twins because of their skin color one of the twins fought back the tears and fought back. "You don't know anything, she protested, we share the same soul!" Out of the mouth of babes! Opposites do attract and in our differences we share much in common.

St. Paul told the church at Galatia that in Christ there is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male or female because we are all one in Christ. Another way to say that is that we laugh the same language and share the same soul.