Human Interaction

How wonderful that we get to share our lives with other people. Family, friends, neighbors, co-workers... How blessed we are to be surrounded by people. However, I didn't always think this way. I look back at my school days in elementary, middle, and high school. I didn't have too many friends. I was always shy and awkward. Ask my brother. After school was out, he would always wait a while and make sure I had already started walking home before he would start walking home. He didn't want people to see him with me, and he didn't even want people to know I was his sister. How could a popular guy be seen with a shy and weird girl?... even if it was his sister. Ok, I went off on a tangent. But there is a point I am trying to make.

Fast forward 15 years... I am still a bit shy and truth be told, I am still a bit weird. However, what has completely changed is my view of human interaction. As a teen, I wasn't looking to make friends and hang out and have fun. I didn't care to make friends. But that all changed when Christ came into my heart. God began showing me how special every single person is to Him. He even knows the number of hairs on everybody's head. So if God took the time to make everybody special and unique, then why can't I make a conscious effort to meet people and get to know them? As Christians we are called to do so.

My personal calling became evident in a vision that I had a few years ago. I still remember that I was sitting on the side of my bed and writing my thoughts down on paper. I was writing something between a poem and a devotional. I hope that makes sense. As I was writing God started showing me a bunch of people; some I could recognize and some I couldn't. Each person God showed me had a common characteristic. They were introverted, and outcast by most other people. In other words, they were "weird" people... just like me. And I suddenly understood why God gave me the personality and temperament that He did. I have a calling to reach out to people that are normally rejected and outcast by society. That is why I now say that it is a blessing to be surrounded by people: no matter how strange or different they seem, we are all God's creative handiwork.