fear is to draw the circle smaller

Tuesday May 15^th, Acts 10: 44 No sooner were these words out of Peter's mouth than the Holy Spirit came upon the listeners. 45 The believing Jews who had come with Peter couldn't believe it, couldn't believe that the gift of the Holy Spirit was poured out on "outsider" Gentiles, 46 but there it was… This is crazy!!, This Holy Spirit thing is just plan out of control Crazy!  It is hard to come face to face with our brothers and sisters in Christ without our neat tidy boundaries being crossed.  Our usual reaction is that we need more border fences and guns to keep “them” out.  We need more guards to patrol them these fences to protect us from the “Them” who were also created in the image of God. Then just when we think We are safe, we find ourselves stumbling as if pushed. Just when we think we understand God, we find ourselves being pushed to look a little further down the road to our next boundary.  This constant expanding of our understanding of God’s love is still going on.  Our usual reaction governed by fear is to draw the circle smaller and put up fences to keep people out.  But then as soon as we think we got it covered we find that God has opened the gates to let people in. Just what does God want from us anyway, to love everyone? That just seems crazy doesn’t it? Even Peter thought so.  Humanity however, for ever so brief a moment thought they saw the light of heaven shining through.