How good and pleasant it is when God’s people live together in unity! It is like precious oil poured on the head. . . .

— Psalm 133:1-2

The unity of God’s people is a beautiful thing. The Bible calls it “good and pleasant.”

“Good and pleasant” unity is not always easy to see, how­ever. You may not feel the beauty of unity with other Christians when you disagree with them. Or when you feel that they are cruel to you or to others. Or when you simply do not understand why they act and believe the way they do. You might find yourself thinking, “How could unity with them be beautiful?”

Psalm 133 says that the unity of God’s people is like oil anointing a priest, or like dew on a mountain. Those were both considered beautiful things by the people of Israel. And those were both seen as gracious gifts from God. The people didn’t give the priest his authority (represented by anointing oil); that was God’s doing. And the people didn’t put the dew on the mountain; only God could do that.

Similarly, we cannot create Christian unity by our own ­efforts. Only the grace of Jesus can unite us with each other in Christian community.

We know that each one of us is saved only by the grace of Jesus. This means that none of us deserves salvation—and yet we receive salvation anyway. We can live in unity by the power of that grace.

God of grace, show me the beautiful and gracious gift of Christian unity. Unite me with Jesus and with all who follow him. Amen.