a masterpiece

Last week was hard.
Talking about it is harder.

The President reportedly used a very insensitive, disrespectful phrase. While we don’t know all the specifics, I don’t appreciate nor condone the harsh language reported. And while different people seem to have different impressions of the word — especially over the past 25 years — I don’t find Pres. Trump’s reported expression “presidential.”

My desire is for all people to be respected…

Whether from Haiti, El Salvador….
Black or white…
Regardless of any difference or demographic…

I repeat: my desire is for all people to be respected.

The challenge is that many of us justify disrespecting someone.

Allow me to rephrase: many of us justify thinking lesser of someone due to difference. demographic, or disagreement.

The temptation to think lesser of another makes sense… it’s easier to conclude there’s something wrong with another or that we never really knew them than it is to be silent and still long enough, investing the time and doing the work necessary to truly understand the difference in another — to understand why another feels/lives/believes/behaves the way they do. It’s far easier to cast judgment, even when unknowingly done.

I can be just as guilty.

What helps me most is recognizing where we come from.

I think of who and how we were created. I have no doubt the great big God of the universe created you and me.

Not only did he create the people from Haiti and El Salvador. He created the black, white, Hispanic, Asian, etc., too. That truth extends far beyond all the angles of any immigration debate.

When I humbly stand back and look at each person as one created by God, it changes how I see them. I figure he knows a little bit more than me.

I see others with purpose.
Of value.
And of equal worth as me.

Regardless of difference.

I am no better nor worse.
They are no better nor worse.

Hence, there is zero justification for looking down upon another — all differences included.

To see others clearly — and thus to not fall prey to thinking less of any other — it begins by first recognizing God’s creative hand. While we don’t always get it and sometimes seem to totally omit him from the entire equation, the reality is with God having crafted and created the entire universe, he must be bigger and wiser and more creative than any of us will ever be. He is the artist. We are thus — each — his masterpiece.

A masterpiece is revered, unique, and always recognized as beautiful.

What would it change if we saw all others that way, too?

(Note: I said “all”… regardless of difference, demographic, or disagreement…)

Respectfully…
AR