Bear with one another and, if anyone has a complaint against another, forgive each other; just as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. (Colossians 3:13)

              One Sunday morning when I was about five or six years old, my mother came into my bedroom to wake me up to start getting ready for church. She opened the curtains in my bedroom, looked out the window and started shouting, “Chuck! Chuck! (that’s what she called my dad) A bear! A bear!”

              Yep, right outside my bedroom window, just a few feet away from my mom at the window, was a big ole black bear trying to get into our trash cans. Dad called the game warden and the game warden said, “Shoot it.” Which my dad did. Right in the middle of the yard. And for the rest of the time we lived in that house, grass never grew where the dead bear lay. We called it (I kid you not), “the bare spot.”

              The reason the game warden said to shoot the bear is because they were pretty sure it was the same bear that had been tearing up milk houses and chicken coops in the area for months. It was becoming a menace and unfortunately those are hard habits for a bear to break. The fact that it was coming right up to houses made it a difficult bear to bear.

              When Colossians says, “Bear with one another,” my first thought is, “Don’t be a bear with one another.” While most bears in the wild just want to be left alone by people, when bothered they can be quite un-bear-able. Sure, we think of Teddy Bears as cute and cuddly, but in the wild, I would NOT try to snuggle with a grizzly!

              What I’m saying is, can we “bear with one another” and not be a bear with one another? Can we be forgiving for those little slights that really are forgivable? Can we set aside our grumpiness (that bear outside my bedroom window seemed grumpy to me) and bear each other’s little annoyances with grace and poise (not qualities often associated with bears)? Can we bear to accept people simply for who they are? Bearing with one another in forgiveness is how we build community and brings us that much closer to the kingdom of God.

              Thank you for bearing with me as I shared some thoughts on bearing with one another. I do hope today’s meditation wasn’t too much to bear.