A woman was sitting in the waiting room for her first appointment with a new dentist. She noticed his DDS diploma, which bore his full name. Suddenly, she remembered that a tall, handsome, dark-haired boy with the same name had been in her high school class so many years ago. Could this be the same guy I had a crush on way back then? she wondered.
She quickly discarded any such thought when she met the balding, gray-haired man with the deeply lined face. He's way too old to have been my classmate, she thought to herself.
Still, after he examined her teeth, she asked, "Did you happen to attend Morgan Park High School?"
"Yes! I'm a Mustang," he gleamed with pride.
"When did you graduate?" she asked.
"1959," he replied. "Why do you ask?"
"You were in my class!" she exclaimed.
"Really?" he said, looking at her closely. "What did you teach?"
This story made me chuckle because it says volumes about the way that people perceive their actual realities. We must ask God to help to see things from others perspectives at times, because we rarely know what they have gone through (or may currently be going through,) and to seek understanding is one of the most "Christian" things that we can do for someone else.
Jesus gave us a great example in the way that He was able meet people right where they were, rather than demanding that they be right where He wanted them to be.
Are you seeing people through Christ's lens today?
Have a great day and God bless!
Pastor Mike / The Open Word
