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I am sending him back to you, and with him comes my own heart.
Philemon 1:12 NLT
Paul is in prison, an old man, and somehow he gets to spend time with Onesimus, maybe he's been in jail with him for some reason?
Across the ethnic divide, the age divide, the religious, the cultural divide Paul and Onesimus have connected. 
What a beautiful thing to say; "with him comes my own heart". 
Paul didn't let any of those barriers stop him from loving his neighbour.
Carlos Rodriguez is a pastor in Puerto Rico and has t-shirts printed with variations on this theme:
Love thy neighbor
Thy immigrant neighbor
Thy atheist neighbor
Thy LGBTQ+ neighbor
Thy depressed neighbor
Thy disabled neighbor
Thy Muslim neighbor
Thy homeless neighbor
Thy millennial neighbor...
Thy _______ neighbor

Paul is asking Philemon to love his slave neighbor.
Imagine choosing to love a person who you "own" and still want or be able to "own" them. It seems impossible to do both. Tough work ahead for Philemon, tough work to change Onesimus's label from slave to neighbor.
To be able to see Onesimus as worthy.
As Brene Brown says "worthy of love and belonging"
Remember today that nothing needs to shift in Jesus to see you and me as worthy of love and belonging...we're already there.
#philemon
#aroha
#alreadydearlyloved
#loveyourneighbour

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