I was sitting in an atrium waiting to start work. In front of me were tall grasses, short grasses and grass that was neither tall or short. Some covered the ground really nice and some just stayed in one spot.
There were plants that were flowering and some that never had flowers, and it dawned on me that not a single one cared at all about where it was planted, what color it was, how tall it was, or what abilities it had. Each just did the best it could with what it had.
Have you ever thought about how much plants and people are alike? No two are really identical (even twins). Each plant and each person has its own unique abilities, and there's a great variety of each. Each plant and each person has real value. What's good for one may not be good for another. (Waterlilies do not grow well in dry sand.)
One difference seems to be that people are seldom content with where they are put, but plants NEVER want to be someplace else. They just keep doing the best they can right where they are.
Another difference is that plants do not care about what another plant looks like, but you sure cannot say that about people. We are so “put off” by someone who looks as if they don't care, or by someone who does not look “right” .
With Easter coming up I was thinking about how Mary, and later the two disciples of Jesus who were walking to Emmaus, did not recognize Him when they saw Him (He didn't look right), and I realized again that the lashings and beatings He took for me were not just on His back. (I even wonder if He can still see?)
Isaiah 52:14 (NLT) puts it this way:
"But many were amazed when they saw him. His face was so disfigured he seemed hardly human, and from his appearance, one would scarcely know he was a man."
How would you and I treat Jesus if we met Him at church this weekend? Would you treat Him like we treat sickly dandelions, or would you treat Him like the King He is?
“... I tell you the truth, when you did it to one of the least of these my brothers and sisters, you were doing it to me.” Matthew 25:40 (NLT)
Today, how will you treat that someone who does not look like you?”
Dan
