Racial prejudice can take root early in human hearts. Children are colorblind until they hear adults making unfounded statements or see them shunning people of a different race. Prejudices soon become well-established weeds with deep taproots. Eradicating them isn't easy.

Laws can help to minimize discrimination in housing and the workplace. But no legislation eliminates prejudice in the heart. Its only sure killer is a long and hard look at what Jesus accomplished when He died on the cross. It's there that we can receive a wisdom "full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality and without hypocrisy" (Jas. 3:17).

It is said that after the Civil War, General Robert E. Lee, a devout Christian, visited a church in Washington, D.C. During the Communion service, he was seen kneeling beside a black man. Later, when someone asked how he could do that, Lee replied, "My friend, all ground is level at the foot of the cross."

What makes that ground so level? The awfulness of our sins, the terrible price Jesus paid to forgive them, and the love He has for all people. Prejudice cannot survive in soil from that ground.

We can all kneel together at the foot of the cross.  — Dennis J. De Haan