Whatcha Think Ya Know.

 Whatcha Think Ya Know.

 

Sometimes we think we know something or someone—or even a place—and it turns out we had one impression while the facts were totally different. That does not always mean we were mistaken in what we thought, but it does mean that we were not maybe as well versed in facts as we could have been. Some of us listen to folks talk and just store little factoids in the back of our minds. For instance, we might think that someone was a totally great person and find out that the person was anything but great. Or we might think that someone was all about truthfulness and find out that we held onto a totally mistaken impression. Now this is not to include those folks who hide behind a public façade like politicians. We all have a pretty good idea that politicians say one thing and do another opposite thing. Or they say one thing and slide around the truth in some other way. Guess the Bible has a good reason for telling us to let our nay be nay and our yay be yay. We all like to see our opinions reflected in those we admire, so some of us think the world of a particular person because it appears that they are the kind of person we think we are—or what we would like to think we are. To get down to the nitty gritty, how many of us really examine what we think we know about others? Impressions count—sometimes. But the little comments we hear and have in the back of our minds will come back eventually to seal the deal—was that comment made with love or self-interest?

 

Each year or decade of my life has shown me some new things about myself and others. My parents were teenagers when they started having children. And neither of them had the best examples of unconditional love from a mother. My husband’s mother and father had not planned to have a child when he happened. And unconditional love never happened for him from that origin. Yet he loved with his whole heart and gave himself as well as he could to me and to his children. He became a great example of a grandfather—loving and giving himself to his grands. My nephew Danny Pollard says that to this day he tries to emulate PawPaw Leland in the way he loved his grands. See, we all have pictures in our minds of how some folks are—whether or not others see these people in the same manner. The grands of these men will never know them by the facts of their lives unless we tell them the facts. And then OUR perception of those facts may be somewhat different than what they really were. We are swayed by our love or by our resentments or other emotions. We are human just as they were.

 

If we are to understand love at all, we have to see the way God sees us—with a picture of HIS love before him in the person of Jesus Christ. Nevermind all the trials of childhood or living with the terrors of becoming a responsible person. Our history changes as we become aligned with that picture God has before Him. Unconditional love.

 

One of the things a dear person tells me at times is that we have to take care of ourselves before we can really help others. To a great extent, that is the truth. But it is simply too easy to be a narcissistic, self-centered person. Considering others before ourselves is a learned trait. It takes some practice, dear hearts. Critters sometimes come closer to helping others unconditionally than people do. In the back of our minds, we consider what our actions will do to the “me” that is involved. It never ceases to amaze me that creatures of one species will adopt a creature of another species—even prey animals adopted by predators—when we think of those adoptions as totally against the nature of the creatures involved. We are a little like that. Maybe a rush of endorphins is involved when a mother picks up a strange child to help it and love on it. Or to adopt it. But progressive love that endures to give the other creature the protection it needs, that is the kind of love that we strive for—or should emulate as conscious people.

 

Have you seen the creatures that have been cruelly abused and misused that still seem capable of a loving attitude after they are rescued? Some of the people in this ol’ world will be like that when they are rescued from this world’s insanity. With eight billion people in the world today, finding love should not be so terribly difficult if God directs us. And it should also not be so terribly difficult to show love in the many opportunities available to us.

 

Today let us look beyond what we think we know about others or this world. Let us look at the world—this temporary place—and see what is planned around His love.

 

Rest well, my friends. We know love.