The Whole Picture

pc: Marc Mueller

We don’t see
The whole picture.
We don’t see
What makes a person act
Or believe or think
The way they do.

We don’t know
Their cracks,
Or see their wounds
We aren’t aware of
Their bent places or
The things they carry

We can’t possibly
Be acquainted with
All the stories they hold,
Nor see the ways
That they have been shaped,
Or the ones who have shaped them.

We can’t know what its like
To be in their family,
Or shoes
Or skin.
We can’t know how it feels
To be where
They have been.

So let’s
Have grace and
Give each other space
Let’s hold their humanity
Next to ours
And remember that,
We are all image bearers.
We all have feelings.
We all need love.
Let’s replace our need to be the same
With greater things.

Let’s enlarge our capacity,
Hold our differences,
And widen our hugs.

Lets turn our faces to the author of love
And soak there
Until our souls are filled
With His unspeakable grace.
Until His tender mercy
shines out of our face
Until we are so full
We spill His love
All over
The place.

1John 4:7-8

“ Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love.”