Article June 6, 2016 Issue

Conversation in a taxi

Kari Mashos

Adapted from an article published in The Christian Science Monitor, January 28, 2016.

My taxi driver at busy Heathrow Airport met me with a friendly greeting, followed by an announcement that he was Muslim. At first, I was unsure why he would feel the need to share his religion with me. But then, sensitive to the fact that there were those who might feel fear and hate toward those of his faith in a climate of heightened security in England (and elsewhere), I reciprocated his handshake with a sincerely warm and friendly greeting.

This simple meeting between me and this driver—a Christian and a Muslim—was more than a symbolic gesture of human unity amid the confrontational mood and events in the world. To me, it went beyond even social courtesy. I felt a genuine desire to bring every moment under the direction of God, whom I have come to know from the Bible as Love, and that this meeting was an expression of that Love.

At his prompting, we spoke of the urgent need to demonstrate the brotherhood of man. Together we acknowledged God as the Father of all—making us all brothers and sisters. We spoke freely of our love for God, our children, and of our mutual desire to treat everyone as we would want to be treated.

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