Gratitude for Understanding & Tolerance

I'm not altogether sure why this was offered as a Thanksgiving story, given that it happened in the heat of summer. T. Sher Singh lives in the heart of Ontario's Mennonite country but while they are in proximity, as a Sikh his path doesn't cross directly with these Christians who tend to keep to themselves.

One day he was driving past a barn-like building and noticed many buggies and horses surrounding it, the conveyances of Old Order Mennonites. His curiosity got the better of him and he turned in and entered the building. In the gloom he realized that he had walked into a worship service, even though it was a Thursday. There he was with his uncut facial hair, a turban, shorts and short-sleeved shirt in the midst of a sea of black. He was virtually paralyzed in his shock, but one of the participants showed him a seat. The sermon was in another language, and a monotone. In some respects he couldn't have been more uncomfortable, and yet in his own words:

There was a magic to the smallness and the simplicity.
I raise my head and look around me.Is this the devotion experienced by Man before places of worship turned into palaces? Each one around me is in a kind of bana -- religious garb -- and yet it's not paraded as a badge of honour, or lays claim to a status which otherwise has to be earned. It's neither a costume nor a weapon.
What each one is wearing here is no more than an expression of pure humility and surrender.
There is much that I know about Mennonites that I do not agree with and would never want to emulate.Yet, I feel at home with them. Sitting amongst them, I feel connected with my Sikh Faith as I seldom am elsewhere.
Walking into that congregation that day, I felt like I had shed my shoes outside, washed my feet, covered my head in humility, and had checked my bag of pretensions and ostentations, language and intelligence, outside. And walked in, a naked soul.

Lovely observations by Singh. Perhaps the Thanksgiving aspect of this story is that it could happen in this country. For all the nonsense in Quebec around "values" which restrict religious expression, we live in a land where a Sikh could be welcomed to worship by Mennonite Christians.

It works for me.

Thoughts?