We Are All God's Kids

I recall a book club that I particpated in with my pastor.  The book was about everyone deserving God's grace.  I cannot recall the title but it was a powerful book that simply stated that the murders, the rapists, the child molesters, everyone had God's grace and are equal.  At first I could not wrap my head around it and then I see "Master Class" with Maya Angelou where she states basically the same thing: "We are all god's children".  She then sights killers as an example.  We as a human species cannot be the judge of who deserves god's grace and who is his child.  This is what this statement means to me now, today when I know better then before.  The people I perceive are going to hell are likely not going to hell after all.  The ones I perceive as my enemies are just as worthy of God's love and grace as I am, even if I did not think that at one time, in the past.  Who am I to decide who is worthy and who is not.  That is a newer lesson for me.  If God is a loving God then he has to be that loving God to everyone.  If he or she is a forgiving God then he or she must be a forgiving God to everyone, not just the ones we think should be forgiven based on what they have done or how they have lived their lives.  

A woman I know was married to an atheist and she did not know it.  He never admitted to being one nor did he reveal his spiritual belief.  When she uncovered that he was a non-believer she summarized that this was why he was so cold and unfeeling.  When he left her with small children and never looked back she thought him to not just be an asshole but the "spawn of the devil".  Interestingly this person seems so happy and content with himself.  He went on with his life and he found another wife and in fact he lives with her and his girlfriend.  All three live together and have formed another family.  In the meantime he never looked back.  He never once called his children and he never so much as acknowledged that his daughter had a rare form of cancer.  Everyone in their right mind would think this person to be a dreadful specimen of a man yet in God's eyes he is as beautiful as the man who did not run away from his wife and children.  He gets the same grace, even if you and I might think he does not deserve it.  

We are all god's kids.  We are equal in his eyes.  Some of us have done some pretty dreadful things like rape or killing someone.  Some of us have thought some ugly thoughts and some of us have filled the earth with miserable tales.  But we are all God's kids and we all are worthy.  If some of us are not worthy then none of us are is my feeling today and now.  If the woman can forgive the man who killed her daughter then who are we not to be in a more forgiving place with others.  If a man can forgive a woman for drowning their children one by one then who are we to say?  God forgave her if he forgave us our sins or wrong doings.  It is either or.    Either we are all God's kids or none of us are.  Either we are all given grace or none of us do.  If Maya Angelou can forgive the man who raped her as a child we can forgive those who cross us.  

It is the small mindedness in this world that will keep us from understanding that no matter what color we are, what we have done, how much education we have or who we choose to love, we really are all equal and we are equally deserving.