Uncovering Treasures of Dignity

Would you take just 2:25 and enjoy this beauty, this dignity with me? Do you love this as much as I do?What would it be like if today you and I chose to restore human dignity to another? What would it be like if you pulled up to the intersection and asked the woman holding a sign what her name is? Or even if you sat down with her and asked to hear her story?  What treasures of dignity might we uncover?I'm reading Job right now. This time around I'm less struck by the horrific losses that he experienced than I am by the sorry way his "friends" came around him.As Job sat in silence, covered in ashes, grieving, and trying to make sense of it all ... his friends pointed their theological fingers.  They looked for sin in Job's life. And when they couldn't find any, they dug their fingers into his wounds searching for sin. Their only explanation for Job's loss, Job's pain was hidden sin in his life.They robbed him of his humanity. They buried his dignity. He would have been better off without them.Jesus makes it clear that all the pain, the misfortune, the hard knocks in life ... are not always related to sin. But, we're quick to go there, aren't we?  We're quick to look for sin and heap clods of dirt on the hearts of the hurting. What might it have been like if Job's friends just sat with him, and wept with him? What might it have been like if they hadn't tried to come up with answers, but had just come alongside?  What if they had reminded him of his humanity and restored his dignity rather than digging for sin in his life?  What might it have been like?Today, would you be on the lookout for someone who needs a  bit of humanity? You just might uncover treasures of dignity.

As (Jesus) passed by, he saw a man blind from birth. And his disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” Jesus answered, “It was not that this man sinned, or his parents, but that the works of God might be displayed in him.  

John 9:1-3