When we travel and arrive in an airport in the morning, I look for a place for my daily devotions. Many airports have a place, often called a Meditation Room (that’s the name we gave to our prayer rooms in various buildings at Ford Motor Company, and someone told us it was a whole lot better than praying in her car in the parking lot).

We returned from Israel to Detroit via Amsterdam, arriving at a good time for morning prayer. The Amsterdam meditation room is easy to find, and it’s an attractive space. I was surprised to see so many people of different faiths and philosophies in the room, and I was surprised and pleased to find I wasn’t the only person laying tefillin.

In fact, an Israeli man leaned over to ask me which way was East.

I pulled up the compass app on my iPhone and gave what I hoped was a good answer. East, in case you ever need to know, is facing the door.

I looked up after a while and saw a man on his prayer mat, facing East like me.

It’s easy to forget how close are Jews and Muslims. We pray in the same direction. We believe in one God, so (logic tells me) we pray to the same God, since there’s only one. We ascribe all power and glory, majesty and might, to God.

Richard Burton, the great Victorian adventurer, observed: “In religions as a rule the minimum of difference breeds the maximum of disputation, dislike and disgust.”

But today’s divisions may fade with time, and perhaps one day we’ll become united as we send our prayers in the same direction, toward the open door of the Amsterdam Schiphol Airport Meditation Room.