One Hand, One Heart

Yesterday morning I was thinking about A Christmas Carol, that highlights a divided society – particularly between the rich and the poor. Scrooge a self-centred, miserly, grumpy old man has money, but doesn’t understand or care for the poor…

West Side Story also tells of division, between rival New York Gangs – the white American Jets and the Puerto Rican Sharks. American Tony meets Puerto Rican Maria and they fall in love. They make promises to each other, and sing together:

Make of our hands one hand
Make of our hearts one heart
Make of our vows one last vow
Only death will part us now

Make of our lives one life
Day after day one life
Now it begins, now we start
One hand, one heart
Even death won’t part us now

The song describes a love that brings together two very different people, different races, different cultures. Their two hands are joined, their two hearts are joined, their two lives become one life. It’s a love that heals divisions, and continues through the darkest times.

We live in a divided world, where nations oppose nations, where one power confronts another power. We live in divided countries, where politics divides and sets us against each other.

My prayer for today is ‘Make of our hands one hand, make of our hearts one heart, make of our vows one vow, make of our lives one life.’

Today as I attend church I’m painfully aware that it’s a divided church, divided by our history and traditions, divided by our views on abortion or homosexuality, divided by a leadership that’s often focused on power, divided by the failure of our fathers and aspirations for our children.

If we live as followers of Jesus, we follow one whose words and actions taught love and unity. No exceptions, no excuses. It was a love that included the excluded – the unclean and the different – deliberately, intentionally, uncomfortably, united in one hand, one heart, one vow, one life.

The two stories end very differently. With Scrooge there was transformation. He became generous, compassionate and full of joy. Divisions were healed. There was a happy ending.

With Tony and Maria there was continuing hatred, confrontation, aggression between the opposing factions. Divisions grew. There was a tragic ending and death.

I continue to pray… transformation, love, unity… one hand, one heart, one vow, one life…