Diversity

The ride from Cockfosters was a first.  I have never started at the first stop on any form of subway.  The car I boarded initially had one other person.  The space, quietness, and sense of being alone would fade quickly.
 
With each stop, the momentum of heading towards London increased.  A mother and daughter first joined our car, sitting next to me.  On a bright spring day, the young girl’s ice-lolly (popsicle) was incredibly attractive!  The ten miles walking earlier in the day had left me with a craving for things cold, sweet, and wet.  This fit every requirement and more.  She laughed and giggled as she enjoyed her treat, watching with interest as the car filled up at each station.
 
The diversity was amazing.  On top of the various English accents, I could hear at least ten different languages – from Italian, German, French, and Spanish through Russian, Hungarian, Greek, Cantonese, and more that I did not recognize.  Japanese, Filipino, and Americans were represented in the mix.  The dress spanned low hugging jeans with pink g-string pants peaking out through business casual and scattering of young and old dressed for the theatre. 
 
Everyone was in good spirits.  While some listened to their MP3 players, others chatted about the day, prospects for the evening, and the latest local gossip in their lives. 
 
It was fun to be silently in the middle of it all, listening, watching, and participating without being noticed.  I was struck by the observation that we were all family.  We may not act like it, but we are.  We may not want it to be that way, however, we are.  We may not even believe, yet, our doubts do not change the fact.  God “treated the outsiders exactly as he treated us, beginning at the very center of who they were and working from that center outward, cleaning up their lives as they trusted and believed him.”  (Acts 15.9)
 
I drifted out of the car at the Piccadilly to be engulfed in a wave of humanity.  Each was God’s child and my sibling.