Practicing Loving Acceptance

Vanderhoof’s rainbow sidewalk as of October 24, 2021

“Love the Lord your God and keep his requirements, his decrees, his laws and his commands always.”

(Deuteronomy 11:1, NIV)

While this rainbow sidewalk may not represent what I believe, it is important to me the people it represents find welcome and acceptance by me and those I live alongside. So my struggle is not so much with having a rainbow sidewalk in Vanderhoof but with the continued vandalism of it. The continued tire tracks over it put shame on those doing it.

What strikes me about God today is that while He has outlined a specific way He wants us to live, He does so with the deepest love possible. “God is love.” (1st John 4.8,16). When we step out of His way, we do not step out of His love; He continues to love each and every one of us. When we step out of His way, we distance ourselves relationally from Him, and we minimize the extent of His blessing we will experience, but we cannot step out of His love.

So I call us to love all others just as God does! We may have different beliefs, but we want to be accepted in our’s, so let’s accept others in their’s. We may live out life differently, but we want to be accepted despite our idiosyncrasies, so let’s accept others despite the unique choices they make.