Finally, Daniel came into my presence and I told him the dream. (He is called Belteshazzar, after the name of my god, and the spirit of the holy gods is in him.) – Daniel 4:8

Today's Scripture Reading (July 13, 2020): Daniel 4

It happened a few years ago at a local convenience store. I walked in to pick up a bottle of Diet Coke, something that was not an uncommon thing for me to do. The owner of the store was a Muslim, and he knew that I was a Christian. We had passed greetings back and forth from one side of the cash register to the other at different times when I had come into his store. But on this day, he was quiet. There was no hello as I entered the store. And no smile for the customers as they paid for their goods and left. I grabbed my diet coke and then waited for the store to be empty.

Then I went to the cash register. "Is everything okay?" It seemed like such a simple question between two people who only knew each other from a very superficial point of view. There was no real reason for him to trust me, or for me to be concerned. And yet, there we stood.

But there was a reply. "My mother is sick. We don't know if she will live." It is strange the everyday things that we share, even when we see life in very different ways. And at various points in our lives, we all have concerns for our mothers and our fathers. And then, right there in the middle of an empty convenience store, we paused our day as we prayed for our mothers, one praying to Allah and the other to Yahweh.

Was this a conversion moment? No, not for either us. It was a moment of respect and an acknowledgment of the essential things in life. Sometimes I wonder if we forget that we can respect each other without agreeing with each other. I wonder if we forget that we can love and care for each other, and appreciate each other, even amid some pretty essential disagreements. Sometimes I wonder if we forget that we can oppose each other and still treat each other with humanity.

Nebuchadnezzar tells us two things with this statement in his letter. First, he respects and appreciates Daniel. Part of that respect is found in the fact that he calls him by his Jewish name, Daniel, rather than the name that Nebuchadnezzar had given him, Belteshazzar. It was part of the King's way of honoring the servant of Yahweh. Second, he recognized that God was moving inside of Daniel. But he was not a convert of Daniel's God. Nebuchadnezzar still considered Bel to be his God. He respected Daniel, and he was impressed by Yahweh, but that was the extent of Nebuchadnezzar's belief. There were still some deep disagreements between the two men, but those disagreements did not trump the care and admiration that the two men felt for the other.

Tomorrow's Scripture Reading: Ezekiel 40