Imagine This ...

Imagine this scenario:

You have been diagnosed with a rare blood disease and need a blood transfusion. But this transfusion must come from a sibling. To your knowledge you have no siblings, that is until your parents tell you a story they have kept secret for years. You do have a brother. Years before you were born your parents had a child that disappeared mysteriously. Apparently kidnapped. They know he is alive because yearly they get correspondence verifying his safety.

So, in your desperate condition, you set out on an all out search for this brother. You hire private detectives, you take out full page ads in the newspaper, the national media gets wind of the story and runs a segment about your situation on a national news program.

Then one day your doorbell rings. Across the threshold stands a man who claims to be the long-lost brother. Yet immediately you have your suspicions. You’re only 5 ft 5 inches tall – he’s 6 ft 2 inches at least. You have brown hair – he’s a red head. You’re a little overweight – he’s rail thin. You invite him in anyway and discover even more differences. He loves camping, the outdoors – you prefer a motel room. You love a juicy steak – he’s a vegetarian. He loves classic rock and roll – you prefer country. You’re a red sox fan – he loves the Yankees. After a while you say out loud what you’ve been thinking – “Certainly there are far too many differences for us to be brothers.” He agrees. But then you say, “Well, let’s do the blood test anyway.”

You go the clinic. The technician draws blood from your arm and then from the arm of your suspected brother. He takes it back into the lab and the two of you anxiously await the results. After awhile he returns and says, “The blood confirms it. You are brothers.”

As we pass the cup we are reminded that in spite of our differences we are saved by the same blood -- that we have the same blood flowing through our spiritual veins.

The blood confirms it. We are brothers.