What Does It Look Like? - Considerate Inclusion (Part Deux)

What Does It Look Like? - Considerate Inclusion (Part Deux)

AS WE CONTINUE our ride around the lake, I watch twentysomething women in teensy-weensy shorts and halter tops jogging (without sweating) as they look for tonight’s date. They laugh together at something a young hunk-of-a-man just said in passing. I remember flirting.

I marvel at the seventysomething people, lean and tan, looking like they’ve run a thousand miles. They laugh at everything because they know something we don’t. I remember that laugh from my grandmother.

I barely see the Lance Armstrong wannabes as they whiz by on their bikes like a bullet train. They’re not all high strung. As they pass me on my left, I hear them laugh as they share a story about something that happened at the office. I think of my office mates and smile.

People of all ages—newborn to nearly dead. People of all ethnicities—plain white to midnight and every shade in between. People of all sizes—short, tall, thin, very thin, heavy, very heavy. It’s a fabulous place.

And this is what I want Ava to see. A world where everyone is welcome to laugh, to love, and to be loved.

I want Ava to see that considerate inclusion is the opposite of isolation; considerate inclusion means meeting people on common ground where we all experience life. It’s learning to belong to the human race by engaging in life alongside others—even if we’re not involved in their conversation. It’s learning, through the expression of respectful interest, about those whose cultures and religions are different from our own; and it’s learning to be respectful of one another, even when our value systems don’t perfectly align.

So now, come back to your God. Act with love and justice, and always depend on him. (Hosea 12:6)

In Dallas, as in most towns and cities across the country, we still usually localize and live among our own. But on Saturday mornings at White Rock Lake, we come together. Everyone is welcome. And I can’t wait to take Ava. It’s a fabulous place.