When You Become Divided, What Will You Do?

When You Become Divided, What Will You Do?

Inspired by Saying 11, Gospel of Thomas

There is a haunting saying from Jesus in the Gospel of Thomas, a gospel few ever read, yet it speaks volumes to the soul.

“This heaven will disappear, and the one above it will disappear too.
Those who are dead aren't alive, and those who are living won't die.
When you were one, you became divided. But when you become divided, what will you do?” Jesus

This isn’t a riddle to solve. It’s a mirror held to the soul.

So let me begin, with a story.

The Parable of the Broken Mirror

Long ago, in a village nestled between two great rivers, there was a mirror unlike any other. It was said to be the first mirror ever made by human hands. But those who gazed into it didn’t just see their faces, they saw who they truly were.

For generations, the mirror sat in the village square. People would come not to admire their appearance, but to remember themselves.

Then one day, a storm came, a violent, roaring storm, and shattered the mirror into countless shards. The villagers wept. In their sorrow, each person took a fragment home, vowing to protect it.

Years passed. Children grew. Memories faded.

And one by one, each person began to believe that their shard was the whole mirror. They held it up proudly, saying, “This is the truth!” But no two reflections matched.

Arguments turned to feuds. Fences became walls. The village, once united by shared reflection, became divided by shattered certainty.

One day, a child turned to her grandmother and asked, “Why are we all angry when we all carry pieces of the same mirror?”

The grandmother, who still remembered the storm, simply said, “Because we’ve forgotten… we were once one.”

Reflection

That’s the essence of Jesus’ words, isn’t it?

“When you were one, you became divided.”

Each of us carries a shard of the truth, reflections of eternity housed in fragile bodies. But we forget the whole. We mistake the part for the all. And so division begins, not only with others, but within ourselves.

Then Jesus adds:

“In the days when you ate what was dead, you made it alive.”

Even when we’ve consumed the dead things of this world, resentment, judgment, shallow identity, we have the power to awaken something deeper. We can still breathe life into what was lifeless. This is the miracle of being human: the power to resurrect not just bodies, but awareness. Consciousness. Compassion.

But then comes the challenge:

“When you're in the light, what will you do?”

Because awakening is not the destination. It’s the beginning.
Light isn’t just for illumination, it’s for healing. For gathering. For restoring what was shattered.

Call to Action

So… when you become divided, what will you do?

Will you cling to your fragment, convinced it shows the full reflection?
Or will you humble yourself, and seek others with their pieces, not to argue, but to understand?

Will you help rebuild the mirror? Not the old one in the square, but the one inside every soul, the mirror of divine unity?

Even heaven, Jesus says, is not permanent.
But the light within you is. That light transcends all heavens. That light remembers.

Today, we are not here just to listen.
We are here to remember.
To begin the sacred work of gathering the mirror,
One shard,
One truth,
One soul at a time.