I have returned from my parent’s village.😆
If you have never been to yours, please carry your bag and baggage (like they would say) and follow me as I follow Christ;😜 a world of adventure awaits you as your traverse your native land.
My maternal grandma kicked the bucket, succumbing to the persuasion from my Dad, my sister and I took our backpacks and faced Ibadan Express road to go pay our last respects.
Oza is that child that is neither owned by Edo state nor fully betrothed to Delta state. She has found for herself a tiny little place to rest her tired feet. That’s my village.
I have never felt so at home as I did within her bosom. Her people were my people in its entirety. Communication and meaning took up new definitions for me. Words spoken in my dialect by everyone were so clear in my understanding.
Every buyer in the shop spoke in a language I understood, unlike Lagos where everyone spoke in different tongues.
The kids that tossed pebbles with their feet said things I understood. The farmers and palm – Wine tappers bantered in words that were crystal clear even though they rolled their tongues like those tires in the hands of little children.😬
There were no holds barred. I knew what the bike men were saying to their customers, I knew what the seller on the street said to the buyer, I understood what the young chap said to the pharmacist about his lover, all was an open secret.
I have thoughts about my faith and the difficulty we sometimes encounter because we seem to be too divergent and difficult for unity.
I have wished we were more connected as believers.
See, the tower of Babel and its builder’s level of communication and tenacity got God’s attention from heaven and He knew there was no way they could be stopped except by scattering their language. With their ability to speak in one language, they were going to finish that project and do what their hearts were set to do. No one could stop them.
As I pondered on this, the scripture that comes to mind was this one.
Ephesians 4:4-6
“4 There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called in one hope of your calling; 5 one Lord, one faith, one baptism; 6 one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all.”
What sweet harmony we will experience when we are focused on what binds us than those that tear us apart. There is the language of the body, its nuances are here; one spirit, one hope, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, and one Father.
Jesus prayed passionately,
I John 17: 20-23.
20 “My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, 21 that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. 22 I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one— 23 I in them and you in me—so that they may be brought to complete unity. Then the world will know that you sent me and have loved
The things that bind us are stronger than the things that pull us apart, can we focus on what binds us?
Maybe the first place to start is to be genuinely connected to God as an individual. Learn God. The first place I started was to learn to speak Oza so that in the days I met my people, we spoke one language.
As divergent as it seems, when you meet a true believer you will know, because communication and meaning would take a different meaning in your head. You would be so connected.
Have you ever met a person who is a believer and immediately there is that soul and spirit- deep connection?
So, learn God first. Learn to speak Him in all you do.
When we do, unity is easier.
Blessings!
Thirsty 
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