If you get afraid, say your prayers

Nouwen's admonition in Saturday's reading for us to love our enemies would have been a throw away for me--yeah: it's Biblical, but it's not practical--were it not for a friend sharing with me about a story he recently read.  It was the story of Ruby Bridges, the first grader who helped integrate the New Orleans Public School system in 1960.

Her mom was all about it.  Her dad: opposed.  He thought things weren't going to change and "blacks and whites would never be treated as equals," according to Ms. Bridges' account of the story at rubybridges.org.

But as you can see from the Norman Rockwell painting, Ruby Bridges walked to the white-school under the protection of federal marshals  amid the angry shouts and the furious fists (every day for the whole school year) of militant segregationists.

Ruby Bridges' teacher always watched her walk into school.  One day she thought she saw Ruby talking to her tormentors.  "I wasn't talking to them," Ruby explained to her, "I was praying for them."

That year of first grade came and went for Ruby Bridges.  The angry mob dwindled away.   Segregation in New Orleans became a part of the past.

What changed it?  The federal judge's decree?  The Marshals--two in front and two behind?

Was it the daily defiant march of a six year old girl?

Could it have been her prayers for her enemies?

It's not easy for people to change.  It's not easy for us to offer friendship to our enemies. Maybe we don't know how.  Maybe if we just got to know them a little better.  Maybe we're just afraid.

Can our prayers for them change them?

Maybe our prayers for them can change us.  And then, after a while, maybe they won't be our enemies anymore.

Maybe they can show us the way?