There’s the most adorable couple that ride by our house on bikes. The lady has a cute basket on the front of her vintage style bike. Her floppy sunhat and glasses are so cute. They look so happy and carefree. Picture perfect.
One day that same couple came happened by our house when we were selling a set of chairs and I learned they were under hard times. A lost job and some other tough stuff had them in a difficult season of life. We had never met them before and the image I had from that one picture in my head: “cute bike riders with free spirits and life is perfect for them” was very different than what their reality was at that time.
Ironically the lady commented on our front porch and how she had seen some of the events I’ve held there with young kids and women and sometimes just sitting out there with friends. She said, “It’s so lovely and ya’ll have so much fun. It’s perfect!”
It’s true -we have a lot of fun at our front porch get togethers. It’s close to perfect some days and it’s a far cry from perfect other days. And I told her so because I could tell she had an image in her head from a snapshot she had gathered. And I had one of her and her hubs riding by on their cute little bikes with floppy hats and cute sunglasses.
Every day we see snippets of people’s lives. We make assumptions and can be drastically wrong.
Sometimes it just takes a few coffee chats to lean in and see behind the snapshot image. We listen. We hear each others stories and often times we can relate more than they or we would ever imagine. The more we do this the closer to friendship we get. And friendship paves the way to redemptive relationships. So let’s get behind those snapshots and get to know people so we can love people well.
You are right about how snippets of people’s lives don’t show us the whole picture. I guess that’s one reason we should take time to get to know others and share our stories. Blessings to you! I’m your neighbor at #porchstories.
Excellent and poignant and true. Jesus had an advantage. He knew the real story. So we need to pause enough to find it so we can love better. Asking today: Lord who do you want me to come alongside today? Besides Deb who just found she has cancer and coming for tuna sandwiches at noon. Amen.
“So let’s get behind those snapshots and get to know people so we can love people well.” We can learn so much when we take the time to really listen to people! Thanks for sharing this, Melody.