Samehorigheid

Most people know about apartheid, which means "separateness" in Afrikaans.

Living here in Pretoria, I am struck by how prominently race still plays a factor, thirteen years after Apartheid officially ended. I have heard tales from every ethnicity about the apartheid years and how they were treated. Even the white South Africans suffer a bit now under black empowerment, losing jobs to black South Africans in an effort to compensate for years of oppression.

The different ethnicities live side by side now, but they never seem to intersect. Neighbours don't get to know one another, people stick to themselves and their own cultures, and it is difficult to make friends or find a friendly face in the crowds.

Today, though, I saw something amazing. A group of white South Africans with Down's Syndrome were coming out of a shopping mall, led by their caretakers. One of them was hugging a black South African woman who was wearing traditional dress - a brightly coloured floral dress and headscarf. These two were the best of friends - they walked arm in arm and I could tell there was nothing that could break the bonds of this friendship.

I wanted to take a picture, put it on the front of newspapers all over the world, and say, "Look! Here is a man most would consider "dumb" (not true, of course), and yet he gets it better than the rest of us. If he can see beyond skin colour to the heart, why can't we?"

It really does come down to love. Jesus prayed in John 17 for unity among the Body of Christ. "May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that You sent Me and have loved them even as You have loved Me." (v. 23) Let's lay aside the petty differences that divide us and choose to live in unity, valuing those differences in culture and personality as unique and God-given. Let us strive for "samehorigheid", togetherness.