It's Just Wrapping Paper

I watched a movie the other day that left me thinking...thinking about our way of seeing things.  Thinking about our "built-in" prejudices, pre-judging of folks for various reasons, assigning traits or characteristics to others solely on how they look before we know anything about them.

One particular quote that stuck with me in that movie was, "Jake,  when you see me, you don't see a man.  You see a black man." As much as I hated to think about that, the more I thought about it, the more I realized that there was an element of truth to it. We have a hard time seeing just people.  We see black people, white kids, Asian babies, etc. The character in the movie went on to say,  "You don't mean to be that way but you are. It's how you was raised." "You see me different."

We are all a product of how we were raised; there is no denying that.  Most of us are who we are to a certain extent because of how we were raised but when we reach the point in our lives that we are able to think with our minds and reason on our own, we become responsible for our thoughts and actions, not our parents.

Do I see people solely as people, as God's creation?  Do I get so caught up in the outer covering, the wrapping paper of people...the skin, that I fail to see past that?   Do I think that others are somewhat inferior to me because their outer covering isn't the same as mine?  Unfortunately ,there are those who do.  How arrogant to think that the God of this Universe would place any value on the color of a person's skin.

God help me and all of us to look past the wrapping paper for when we are able to do that, we open up the possibility of seeing people for who they really are: not a black man or a Hispanic woman or an Asian girl, but human beings created with the same free will to serve God and the same ability to love and care for others just like me.