Complex Masterpieces
I was parked on the street near the elementary school, waiting for my youngest. It was a nice day, so I had rolled the windows down which allowed me to overhear the conversation of the kids walking on the sidewalk. One kiddo walking by peered in the passenger side window, curious. His friend asked who was in the car, and his reply was “Oh, it’s just some mom.”
Now, this is quite true: I am, in fact, a mom. It made me laugh at the time because, for a second grader, that is probably all he needs or cares to know. But it also made me pause. While I am a mother, that doesn’t really give a great picture of who I am. I am a lot of other things, too.
I am also (in no particular order) a puzzle enthusiast, a musician, a daily chef for the family, a person employed at a church, a library card holder, someone who enjoys walking for exercise but not running (in spite of trying to), a volunteer, a friend, a fabric aficionado and quilter, someone who votes, a daughter, someone who enjoys both coffee and tea (though, separately and at different times of the day), a listener, someone who finds other humans fascinating, a Christian, and … well, the list could go on for a while.
I think the reason this comment gave me pause was that it made the entirety of me into only one of the dimensions I possess. It’s one thing for a second grader to do that (he is still learning after all), but it’s more disheartening to see this happen in adults or in the public discourse.
We like to flatten people into one thing or another because our brains like categories. So, for example, we might know one part of a person (say, “Republican" or "Democrat" or "Independent"), place them into a category, and assume that this person is exactly alike to all the other people who fall into that category. But if we flatten a person into one category, we decide to overlook all the various other parts of a person that make them who they are.
I understand that our brains like to categorize things because it helps us understand the world, and so categories of people can seem helpful. But we are more than just one thing, aren’t we? And while all the categories we create may be true in part, they aren’t the whole picture of any person.
We are these great complex masterpieces brought into being by the One who created the entire universe. And we can grow and change in the most fascinating ways! Not only that – we are created in God’s own image, every single one of us. Regardless of which other categories might apply to us, we each bear the image of a loving Creator, and we each fall into the category of Beloved Child of God.
So, as we go throughout this and each day, I hope we can remember that no person is just one thing and I hope we can resist the temptation to put people into easy, but incomplete, categories. Even the people we always seem to disagree with are multifaceted and loved by God. We are all more than one trait or demographic. You and I are more complex than that; even second graders who look in a car window and see “just some mom” contain more than one particular trait. And even second graders and moms are deeply loved by the Creator, just as we all are.
