Every single day has so much potential. Potential for good; potential for evil. Potential – any way you look at it. Yes, I’m still considered “post-partum”. No, I’m not that emotional. I didn’t get emotional when our baby graduated out of the newborn clothing size for good. I don’t look at our 8 week old and get all mushy about how much she’s grown (she has rolls on her thighs now!). I didn’t get emotional when I met and held my first grandchild for the first time (for a baby I did not give birth to, I don’t know if it’s possible to love him more). It’s not that I don’t care – we’ve established that I’m a crier (see my post Collection of Tears) – but some things trigger my tear ducts while others fall short.
We have potential for kindness, the potential for indifference, and every potential in between. And the potentials cost a split-second of time and can have immeasurable lasting effects. Sometimes the “potentials” are simply keeping our mouths shut – or just keep scrolling. Other times, the “potentials” are making eye contact and offering a friendly greeting (to a stranger – I know, it’s crazy!).
Sometimes making our weekly shopping trip can be a bit much. With four littles (oldest is 9, the youngest is 8 weeks), we spend a lot of time going to the restroom. Especially if they’ve been hydrated… at all. One shopping trip, within 30 minutes, we had been to the restroom 3 times. A bit much. Other than the frequent restroom requests, our newly-turned five year old makes the shopping trips fun. She goes with the intention of making friends. To do this (make friends), you have to wave and say hi to people. Her words, not mine, but that’s how it’s done. She’ll hang on the end of the shopping cart, wave, say hello, and has recently started to tell people something she likes about them. I like your hair… Your bag is PINK! Do you have pink shoes? (She loves pink). Not once has someone walked away without a smile on their face.
I’m sure the reaction would be a bit different if it were me asking a random stranger if they had pink shoes, but I have had success in complimenting people on a shirt, a dress, or earrings. Seeing an elderly man proudly wearing a ball cap decorated according to what unit he served in during the Vietnam or Korean wars and thanking them for their service… the potential for adding a boost to their day cannot be measured. When my five year old says hello to a stranger (from the safety of my side), she’s telling them that she sees them – and she sees a friend.
With the potential my five year old sees in people at Wal-Mart (and other stores), I wonder sometimes about our potential. Especially these days. We certainly don’t walk around admiring the potential we see in each other. Most days we cast harsh judgements instead based on what we see on the outside. No, this isn’t new, but it’s become much more pronounced as lines of division have been drawn by many who claim to want unity.
“For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well.” Psalm 139:13-14 (NIV)
I often wonder about word choice when reading the Bible. What does it mean to be “fearfully” or “wonderfully” made? How many times have we read this passage, skimmed over it because it’s familiar to us, and ultimately taken it for granted? Sure, sure, I’m fearfully and wonderfully made… yada, yada, yada. Let’s move on to something I haven’t heard by every Christian motivational speaker out there. I will, but after a closer look:
Fearfully made… I’m made with things that are suited to produce fear or reverence. Reverence is a deep respect. I am made with things suited to produce a deep respect.
Wonderfully made… I’m distinguished, separated – different from everything else in all of creation. I’m made in a way that inspires awe and fills the mind with wonder.
Talk about potential! I have to admit that sometimes it takes me seeing people through the eyes of my five year old before I really see them. How often do we look at other people, whether at stores, restaurants, or parks and see that they are fearfully and wonderfully made? How often do we look in the mirror and see it? How often does God see it?
“’For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,’ declares the LORD. ‘As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.'” Isaiah 55:8-9 (NIV)
This brings me to wonder what His thoughts are in regards to us? His thoughts are higher than our thoughts. This tells me that there’s a great deal of potential that we’re not even seeing.
“For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope.” Jeremiah 29:11 (NKJV)
His thoughts are higher than our thoughts – and they are thoughts of peace to give us a hope and a future. We are made with things that are suited to produce respect and in a way that inspires awe and fills the mind with wonder.
I often look at our 8 week old baby and marvel. She came from a human egg, the largest cell in the human body that is barely visible without the aid of a microscope, and that human egg was fertilized with one of the smallest cells within the human body. From that, a tiny human was made – fearfully and wonderfully made.
I want to challenge you to look at your fellow shopper as fearfully and wonderfully made. Look at your customer as fearfully and wonderfully made. Look in the mirror at that gorgeous individual and see that you’re fearfully and wonderfully made.
Imagine the doors that will blow open for your peaceful future – filled with hope – if you embrace how you were made. You pack quite a bit of potential – just in one cell.