How do you see yourself? How do others see you? How does GOD see you?
A few Saturdays ago as I was preparing to go out and do the yard work while the temperature was below 100 degrees, my wife came to me and said there was a situation in the house. What on earth did that mean? I go inside to find my 10-year-old daughter locked in the front bath. Well she wasn’t actually locked in because both sides of the door knob rotated. Something inside the handle must have broken. No big deal. I had broken into many a door in my life (no need to spread that around) and felt sure that a library card would quickly free my daughter.
After five minutes, a scraped up knuckle or two and several other tricks I will refrain from going into at this time, the door remained firmly in place. OK what next? She can disassemble the door knob from inside!!!! Eureka!! I ask if the dots on each side of the knob look like plus signs or minus signs and she said plus. Awesome, a Phillips head screwdriver was all we needed. I retrieved the screw driver and because we have very thick carpet I was able to press it down and slide it under the door. Within a minute or two my girl had taken the door knob apart and I was looking at her eye to eye. Almost there.
I got the screwdriver back and began to destroy what was left. I made quick debris of it but still it would not open. There was actually nothing visibly left of the handle now. Alright I have to get the girl out of there so let’s implement plan C, the window. I grab a two-step ladder and outside I go. I talk her through opening the double locking window and how to remove the screen and out she comes, none the worse for wear. OK I’m going in. I got to the top step and quickly realized the ladder was not tall enough. Off to get the six-foot step ladder. Back and up I go again. This time I gracefully swing my right leg through the window opening. (I use the term graceful loosely.) It was at this point that I realized there was no way I was doing this without some help. I promptly bellowed for my wife. My wife rounds the corner and immediately starts to laugh. I’m sure the sight of me sitting on the outside window sill, one leg in and one leg still on the ladder, was quite a sight.
Let me step away from the story here for a moment to share a little info with you. At 17, when I graduated high school, I was 5’ 10” tall and weighed a stealthy 130 lbs soaking wet. Now at the tender age of 48 I have shrunk ¾ of an inch and have become very well rounded. Thus the reason the left leg is still on the ladder. Back to the story…
Karen gets to me and, between chuckles, asks what she can do to help (such the good wife). I told her to push on me so I would not fall when I pulled my leg in the window. What’s wrong with that picture? I held on to the window with my right arm and used my left arm to drag my left leg up through the window opening. Seriously? That one move should have been a sign to stop right there. It wasn’t. My wife continues to push on me and I start to wiggle in. Little by little I inched in. I get my behind inside and am lying on my back on the window seal when I realize my feet won’t touch the floor in this position. I must turn over. In an amazing move previously only accomplished by Cirque du Soleil I rotated 180 degrees. I continued to slither in and suddenly I realize … If I go in one more inch we WILL be calling 911. I panicked. My voice went up in pitch and volume and I told my wife I was coming out …. And I did. I jerked and thrashed forward and careened down both the brick wall and the ladder on to the ground.
All I heard was female laughter. It was warranted. I should have been laughed at. I mean, really, what was I thinking? I’m not as young as I like to think I am. I’m not in great shape either. I used to play football and run cross country. I used to be an athlete… well, sort of. Now I cook and eat and then for exercise I cook some more or cut the yard with a self-propelled mower. If I would have asked anyone I know, “Should I try and crawl through the window?” what do you think they all would have said? A resounding NO, I assure you. That’s because they see me for who I am now, today, not who or how I was 30 years ago.
How does GOD see me… or you? In 1 Corinthians 13:12 the second half of the verse tells us. “All that I know now is partial and incomplete, but then I will know everything completely, just as God now knows me completely.” He does know us completely… and loves us regardless of our imperfections. He even loves you when you think you’re small enough to fit through a window when you really aren’t.
Tommy Gilstrap, UBC adult and friend to college students, and one who elicits laughter from kids of all ages
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