A fraternity welcomed a college student with an intellectual disability with open arms. Everyone wants to be with people and in a place where they feel loved and accepted and a sense of belonging. In a beautiful act of kindness, acceptance and love, a fraternity did just that for one young man.

The world is often a cold, cruel and unkind place. People normally treat each other with pure, unfiltered hatred and contempt. Don’t believe me? Simply look at social media and the plethora of snarky, hateful and profanity-filled comments and responses. At times, it can feel that most people’s first instinct toward someone is to react with hate and vindictiveness.

That kind of treatment does nothing good for anyone, the individual receiving it or the person doling out the hate and contempt. Christians are called to love our neighbors. Jesus Christ modeled and lived this out by caring for and healing anyone and everyone. He met people where they were and fulfilled their physical or spiritual needs.

In a clip posted on YouTube, a group of young men at Clemson University – a fraternity – were the first in their school’s history to add a young man from the ClemsonLife program. Charlie McGee, a junior at the South Carolina school, wanted nothing more than to join a fraternity.

He said he wanted to be part of a fraternity to experience the brotherhood and the joy of being included and accepted by such a group. Joy was precisely what Charlie felt when he learned that he had been welcomed into the fraternity.

After opening his acceptance letter, Charlie sprinted, actually running out of his shoes, to greet his new fraternity brothers. Charlie was literally met by the open arms of the young men excited to add him to their group.

“That was one of the coolest moments at Clemson that we’ve had, was seeing that right there,” a fraternity member said.

It was a beautiful, tear-jerking moment.

Ephesians 4:32 “And be kind to one another, full of pity, having forgiveness for one another, even as God in Christ had forgiveness for you.”