The other day I went to a professional baseball game with my family. We went to the wharf in Seattle and had lunch, just before going to the ballpark. We were out on the end of one of the piers taking some pictures, when we met two young women from Japan. They are in the U.S. as students. They are studying at a university in San Francisco and had traveled to Seattle for the Memorial Day weekend. My wife and I both worked for a Japanese company and have traveled to Japan. I still speak a little of the language and so we all connected with them and made friends. We discovered that they too were going to go to the ballgame. After awhile we parted ways and headed to the ballpark.
We arrived at the park early and watched bating practice. About 30 minutes or so before game time, we happened to look over to our left, and to our surprise, across the aisle, in the very same row and several seats in from the aisle, were the familiar looking faces of two young Japanese women. Their eyes caught ours and they immediately began smiling and waving at us. Astounded at the coincidence, we waved back. Unable to contain myself, I ran over to them and gave them a high five. I sat down beside of them and chatted, asking them how long they had been at the park. They told me that they had only just now arrived. I paused and looked more carefully at them. I suddenly realized that although one of the girls had the very same sunglasses as I had seen worn by our friends at the wharf, these were two very different young ladies. I bid them a fun time and went back to my seat. My daughter, son and daughter-in-law had also noticed the discrepancy, informing me when I returned to my seat that they thought that these were two different girls. My wife and I looked at them again and realized the embarrassing truth, that these were indeed two totally different, lovely young Japanese women.
We looked back at them, only to see them smiling politely at us, undisturbed by the incident. Here it is helpful to know something about Japanese people. Although the Japanese can be ruthless business people, they are also full of social grace. They do not look at such incidences as crazy or even awkward. They are more inclined to think that this must be the way of the U.S. people at a baseball game. Moreover, they would be inclined to look at my actions, as the actions of a strange white man, but to also accept me as I am, as long as I am not unkind or behaving rudely, obnoxiously or in a threatening manner.
I was reminded of how powerful kindness can be. Instead of treating me as a strange white man, a position which our society would condone, they simply accepted me and treated me with kindness. Their social grace and maturity reminded me of how Christ lived during His time on earth. He shunned no one and tolerated even those who were considered outcasts from the society of that day. The behavior which Christ did choose to challenge was the behavior of individuals who were judgmental and intolerant of what they perceived to be character flaws of others; flaws which they had determined to be unacceptable by their own inaccurate interpretation of what their religion dictated. Christ was quick to point out that it was their evaluations and judgments which were inaccurate and that loving your neighbor as yourself was the true path of Godliness. What a great lesson to experience, even for a strange white man. Blessings!

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