By Bruce Smith
At our clinic in Panama, I was teaching a series of patients about teeth brushing when the next client, an old, barefoot man, arrived. We’d been told some people from indigenous mountain tribes might come to the clinic and that they would only speak their native language. It was soon apparent that he was one of them. He was old and bent with a weathered face and, I soon noticed, toughed bare feet. He had probably walked 6-8 miles through the jungle on those bare feet to visit the clinic. It was not unlikely that he’d camped overnight to be early in line to learn what we could do for him. Most likely, based on our experiences that week, it would be dealing with the chronic aches and pains due to years of strenuous work. I presented him with a toothbrush and toothpaste without attempting my “Spanish” lesson on brushing. We smiled at each other. If seemed that, despite our quite varied experiences, we’d both lived lives that made smiling easy.
Our encounter was brief and non-verbal. But the connection has stayed with me. We were two men from radically different worlds. I’d enjoyed the advantages of the advanced western world. He had lived a physically difficult life but, doubtlessly, had abilities and an awareness of nature that I could hardly imagine. I felt a deep respect for his experience and native wisdom. Despite the differences we shared some things: caring for our families and our communities, the need to provide for them, and the physical challenges of aging bodies. Somehow, we’d been brought together for this encounter at a medical clinic in Guabol, Panama.
As I’ve thought about him, the insight that’s emerged is that the encounter was a small taste of what we share with diverse people all over the world. As different as we were, we shared a common humanity. And we, as part of His creation, were loved by the same God. Considering the immense variations of cultures, languages, physical characteristics, and experiences we can be amazed by that realization. In the face of all such differences, God is there for each of us in all our awesome diversity. While we may seek to impose limitations and focus on ourselves and our culture; others with their ways and cultures are equally part of God’s vast and immensely varied Kin(g)dom. Distance, cultural differences, language barriers and biases drop away when we realize the vastness of God’s love that encompasses a barefoot Panamanian from the mountains and a Bozemanite from America. My little time with him gave me a new insight into the truth that before God we are all the same, everywhere and in all time.