Earlier this summer, I posted a meditation entitled “Moral Rebuilding” in which I quoted a Dietrich Bonhoeffer sermon from the book Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s Meditations on Psalms. In that meditation, I wrote about the necessity for each individual’s moral growth and improvement if we hope to see a positive moral “rebuilding” occur in our society. This morning, I read the last pages of that Bonhoeffer book, and another quote leapt from the pages at me. Less than a year before his execution for being a part of the Confessing Church (a group of German Christians who opposed Hitler and the Nazi Regime), Dietrich Bonhoeffer penned the following meditation notes to a friend from his prison cell:

God does no repay like with like, and neither should the righteous man do so. Not to condemn, not to curse, but to bless. There would be no hope for the world if this were not so. The world lives from the blessing of God and of the righteous and by this blessing it has a future. Blessing means to lay the hand upon the shoulder and say, “Despite everything you belong to God.”

I cannot imagine the loneliness, confusion and hopelessness that Bonhoeffer must have been feeling when he was in prison, away from his fiancée, his family and friends. Yet, in that time when all he could do was reflect on his actions and the actions of the world around him, he came to this place – this place where he recognized that no matter what is happening, it was not his duty to “repay,” “condemn,” or “curse,” but to only to “bless.” I was not alive during that time, but in everything I have seen in film and read about Hitler and the Nazi party, I cannot imagine ever laying my hand upon any of their shoulders and saying, “Despite everything you belong to God.” Bonhoeffer was actually there. He saw it play out before him. He saw fellow Christians bend to the power of the Nazi Regime and he was disgusted. Nevertheless, there he was, imprisoned for his part in the “conspiracy” to overthrow Hitler, writing about blessing all as the only way to allow hope to live.

This morning when I read those words, I wondered what would happen if, the next time I am upset by someone’s behavior, I simply thought a variation of those words in my mind: Despite everything this person belongs to God. Instead of sitting in judgment of someone who disappoints me or simply disagrees with me, what if I could conjure up that thought in order to remind myself that the person before me belongs to God? What would happen in my heart if my mind could bring itself to ignore the incessant need of my ego to be right? What would happen in our world if we all stopped to think that thought the next time we are disturbed by another person’s actions or words? Maybe, just maybe, we would all be a little kinder to one another. Maybe we would recognize the humanness of our fellow man instead of the ugliness. Maybe we would stop pointing at each other and start shaking hands more often – or better yet, offering a hug!

Perhaps I am being a bit idealistic here, but I cannot stop myself from sharing these thoughts that occurred to me as I read the meditations of someone I consider a spiritual giant. In fact, how dare I not share these thoughts? I am not suggesting that we need to let prisoners run free with a simple blessing. I am simply wondering what would happen if we thought these words in our minds during our next moment of human agitation: Despite everything this person belongs to God. Words that Bonhoeffer was writing in relation to a group of people who exterminated over six million other human beings are certainly words that I can offer up the next time someone cuts me off in traffic. Aren’t they?