Discarded People

[soso]

Discarded People

God calls us to change the way () we look at people. 

Not to see them as Gentiles or Jews, insiders or outsiders, liberals or conservatives. 

Not to label.

To label is to libel. 

"We have stopped eval‎uating others by what the world thinks about them" (2 Cor. 5:16 NLT).

Let's view people differently; let's view them /as we do ourselves.

Blemished, perhaps. Unfinished, for certain.

Yet, once rescued and restored, we may shed light, like the two stained-glass windows in my office.

My brother found them on a junkyard heap. Some church had discarded them.

Dee, a handy carpenter, reclaimed them. He repainted the chipped wood, repaired the worn frame. 

He sealed some of the cracks in the colored glass. 

The windows aren’t perfect. 

But if suspended /where the sun can pass through, they cascade multicolored light /into the room.

* if (it is) suspended

In our lifetimes, you and I are going to come across some discarded people.

Tossed out.

Sometimes tossed out /by a church.

And we get to choose. 

Neglect or rescue? Label them or love them? 

We know Jesus’ choice. 

Just look at what he did with us.