A few days ago a small ad appeared in the Want-Ads of a local paper. The ad was simple, it said, “Ring found call to identify.” This morning when I opened the paper the front page of the local section had an article about this particular ring. Apparently the ring was a rather expensive wedding ring and the grief was quite profound to the woman who lost it. Also, the woman who found the ring was deeply concerned about returning the ring to its rightful owner. As a result, the ring was returned, much joy ensued and they made headline news.
The woman who lost her ring wrote the following, “My aunt prayed with me and told me that God loves me and knows my pain and that He has sent a Christian to find the ring and return it to me.”
It seems, from their perspective, that only a Christian would return a diamond ring. A Muslim, a Jew, an Atheist, a Buddhist, or really anyone that wasn’t Christian, wouldn’t be the type of person that would work to find the rightful owner of something precious.
The woman who returned the ring was in fact Christian (just like the overwhelming majority of people in the community), but she returned the ring because she was the kind of person who would return a ring. Did her Christianity make her more likely to find the owner of the ring? Maybe, Maybe not. Christianity doesn’t necessarily make a person good, it simply makes them a Christian.
Honesty, trustworthiness, kindness, love, compassion do not come from any religion, rather they come from the heart. Good happens in the world because people do good things, not because they follow any particular faith tradition.
