A very strange thing happened to me this week.  On several occasions, as I was looking at my children intently, or while just catching a glimpse of them, I saw something in them that reminded me of someone else. 

Oh I know, people always are quick to point out how much a wee one looks like Uncle So&so, or just like her mom.  We've all made comments like that and noted those similarities.  But this wasn't like that.  The similarities I noticed were not familial.  That is I wasn't thinking 'Boy she sure looks like Aunt Whosit, I was thinking ,"Weird. She kind of looks like my next door neighbor."  On another occasion "Strange. She reminds me of that person I know from class." 

Do you see what I'm saying?  Really random, entirely unrelated people were coming to mind as I looked into the faces of my children (who really do look similar one to the next).  As I thought about how this could possibly be, one answer popped into my head. With all the billions of people in this world there could surely be only so many combinations of facial features that eventually some would duplicate. ('they' say we all have a twin some where in the world, you know.)

But then that still, quiet voice within me said, "Don't leave Me out of the equation.  I made man in My image.  You don't look like each other. You look like Me."

If I will choose to remember that we are all created by the same loving Father; if I will choose to see His handiwork in all of us; if I can see that family tie in those I meet along the way, maybe then I will understand how to consistently love my neighbor as myself. 

And a little more love is a good way to fuel a fire too.