June 14, 2026

Is it possible to see people the way God sees them, without the labels we use to define ourselves and others? Who do we become when the labels others put on us no longer define you? What if the way we see others is too small? And what happens when God crosses the lines we draw between “us” and “them”? This week we hear real-life stories of how God can transform the way we see ourselves and others through the cultivating of meaningful relationships with people who are different from us.

READ

Ruth 2:1-13

Then Ruth fell prostrate, with her face to the ground, and said to him, “Why have I found favor in your sight, that you should take notice of me, when I am a foreigner?” But Boaz answered her, “All that you have done for your mother-in-law since the death of your husband has been fully told me, how you left your father and mother and your native land and came to a people that you did not know before. May the Lord reward you for your deeds, and may you have a full reward from the Lord, the God of Israel, under whose wings you have come for refuge!”

REFLECT

1. Where categories or labels about people do we inherit?
2. How is God disrupting my comfort by placing people in my life I would not have chosen?
3. What happens when we believe that every person we meet is someone God already loves deeply, before we define them?

RESPOND

1. Pay attention to the language you use internally about people who are different from you. Ask yourself: Where did I learn that framing?
2. Notice spaces in your community (church, workplace, neighborhood) where certain voices are consistently absent or unheard—and ask why.
3. Pray for the courage in you and your community to be changed and matured by relationships that challenge your assumptions.

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