I am sure that each of us has heard the old story of the beautiful princess who kissed the ugly frog. You will remember the frog is really a handsome prince changed into a frog by a wicked witch. It seems to be an irrevocable curse since the only way to break the spell is for someone to kiss the frog. (There’s not usually a long line waiting to kiss frogs). But the princess kisses the frog out of the depth of her compassion and the prince emerges.

What a lesson for us! To free the prince, the princess had to let go of all she’d been taught about ugliness in others. We serve Lord Jesus who was and is in the frog-kissing business. Our faith enables us to abandon all we have been taught about ugliness and unacceptability in others so that we might seek and find the "prince" in each one of them.