I recently read a story that touched my heart. It was about two enemy soldiers during World War I – two men who had been trained and conditioned to hate one another, and if possible, to kill one another.

As a German soldier jumped into a shell hole, he found a wounded enemy soldier who was soaked in blood, only moments away from death. As he looked at this dying man, he didn’t see an enemy. He saw a man in need of compassion and offered him some water.

Grateful for this act of kindness, the dying man pointed to his shirt pocket. The German soldier found the man’s wallet and took out his family pictures to hold up for him to see. He knew if he had been dying at that moment, the last thing he’d want to see were pictures of his loved ones.

With bullets raging over them, surrounded by a war neither wanted to be fighting in, the dying man was able to gaze upon his loving wife and children one more time as he took his last breath. For a brief moment, these two enemies saw each other as human beings who had something in common.

Here were two men, soldiers who had been trained to hate one another, who both loved their families. They missed their wives and children, and dreamed every day of returning to them. They missed their parents and siblings, their homes, their jobs, their friends – the life they had left behind and hoped so desperately to be able to return to one day.

These men, like all mankind, had the same basic needs. Each human on this planet who has ever lived and ever will live share the same needs. We all have the same physical needs for food, water, shelter and clothing. We have the same emotional and relational needs to be loved and valued. We have mental needs for sound minds.

Maybe it’s time for us to start focusing on what we have in common with one another instead of all the differences. We prioritize political differences, religious differences, cultural differences, economic differences. We make sure our circles mainly include those who look like us, think like us, and believe like us, excluding those whom we have been conditioned to see as our “enemies.”

We all have the same needs and want the same things deep within our hearts, yet we overlook the things we have in common and only see the differences when we relate to one another. Many think there is no hope for this world in constant turmoil as we battle one another, but hope lies in seeing one another through God’s eyes and loving one another with His love.

Which brings us to another thing we all have in common. We are all sinners in need of a Savior, and God has provided for that need by sending His Son, Jesus Christ, to be our sacrifice, to pay the price for our sins so we can have eternal life with Him.

Maybe we cannot change the whole world by seeing others as human beings and focusing on what we have in common, but we can change the world for one other person, and then another, and another. As we reach out with the love and compassion that only God can give us and see the true human need behind the surface differences, we can make a difference in this world. Love God and love others.