Fellow Passengers…

Today we should like to talk about people⎯just plain people⎯people with problems; people with ambitions and opportunities; people who sometimes make mistakes, and are sorry for them; people with hopes and sorrows and fears⎯and faith.

They are all people⎯just plain people⎯like all the rest of us. And they are all important. And, despite all differences, they are in some respects remarkably alike, and all have the same relationship to the Father of us all⎯to Him who gave us the gift of life.

Charles Dickens, in one of his writings, mentioned the mellowing effect that comes when men look upon other men “as if they really were fellow passengers to the grave, and not another race of creatures, bound on other journeys.”

We are fellow passengers, no matter what we have considered ourselves to be. And the names and statistics that appear in the public press are not accounts of another kind of creature, but of people who have all come from the same place, and who hope to reach the same shore.

These names are not merely names, but people with hearts and hopes and fears and feelings, and having to make the same or similar adjustments in their lives as we would have to make under the same or similar circumstances. That child in the doctor’s waiting room⎯that man at the wheel of the next car⎯that mother in a far country⎯isn’t another kind of creature, but quite akin to us, feeling cold and fear and hunger and sorrow and loneliness, and not loving life or loved ones less than we love life and loved ones.

These oft-quoted lines of Robert Burns come to mind: “O wad some power the giftie gie us, To see oursels as ithers see us!”⎯and more than that⎯not only to see ourselves, but to see others as if we ourselves were in the same circumstances⎯for we are fellow passengers, not only to the grave, but into eternity, according to our faith and works and willingness.

And this is simply a plea for more understanding, for more humanity, from man to man⎯for all have the same relationship to Him who sent us, and seeing others as ourselves, and ourselves as we see others, will help to keep us humble, and bring us closer to understanding and peace and repentance, as we move on, with our fellow passengers, in the hope of arriving at the same shore.