That’s Mine

My niece has a peculiar looking dog. Even the vet asked, “Is he alright?” when he was absolutely fine. He has crazy dimensions and is most unusual for his breed. I was chuckling about him the other day and realised that because Max belongs to my niece and my niece belongs to my sister and my sister belongs to me, he is quite delightful.

I am allowed to chuckle about him, but just let anybody else try.

Interesting that in another life we might have dissed the very thing that we now stand up for if others find fault. If someone else makes a comment about the dog or the child or the school, we sit up straight with a “what did you just say?” look on our faces.

‘Beauty is in the eye of the beholder’, it’s true. ‘There is someone for everyone’, I’m quite sure of that. But when we choose to call something ours, surprising things happen in our hearts. Have you noticed? We become protective over even that which we are not naturally drawn to. Like the streets of London; I wouldn’t say damp paving and grey skies are my thing, but it was, once, my home and a million happy memories tie me up to that part of the world. I hope I don’t live there ever again (the clouds) but to say I’m fond of the place is an understatement. To say I long for my people there is a true story.

When we put down roots in a place we not only start to grow and bear fruit, but our roots intertwine with the roots of others and we all become a whole lot more stable. Any move involves a careful uprooting and transplanting if we are going to thrive in the next setting, too. Every experience and all that we go through makes us who we are.

Commitment and dedication, loyalty and faithfulness do wonders in transforming the things attached to us, turning them from caterpillars into butterflies. Maybe it’s us who undergo a change too – we realise that we are not holier or lovelier and we are just as in need of being called ‘mine’ by someone else or some place else.

My people.

My country.

My work.

My house.

How glorious when the ‘misfits’ (me and you actually) find their place in the puzzle of life. What a happy day when the lost pieces get found. The bigger picture comes together and starts making a whole lot more sense.

Max, with his slinky proportions, actually got driven over once. He had absolutely nothing going for him in those deathly moments. It was like an ant versus a rhino. The cooing tenderness and encouragement, the nutrients fed slowly through a syringe and his family around him willing him to live is the only reason he made it. It’s food for thought – could it be that people, gardens, animals, nations and all sorts of situations, big and small, just need a generous measure of ownership washed over them in order to survive. Maybe someone on the fringes just needs to be yanked and told, “you’re in!” for a special dose of oxygen to revive their lonely soul.

What if we choose to love so much that it heals what is wounded, recovers the worn out, takes what is disintegrated and makes it whole, turns the bizarre into a fashion statement and transforms what is ugly into what is beautiful in our eyes?

One of our children has very generous ears, but his aunty has told him he has the best ears in the entire family and so he’s always just believed he’s the man. We don’t even know around here that some people wish they didn’t have big ears. It’s fabulous when our natural flaws are the very things that endear us to others.

The same way a mole becomes a beauty spot and a wrinkle becomes a laughter line, we see exactly the same thing but it, now, means something positive to us. Instead of avoiding or ignoring, we welcome. We see the ‘problem’ and make it our own, enjoying front row seats in a show where frogs and beasts turn into princes; where dandelion weeds are turned into salads and teas, their seeds collected and flowers dried for later use.

But ye are a chosen generation (people), a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people (God’s special possession), that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light. (Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.) – 1 Peter 2 v 9 & 10 KJV (NIV in brackets)

Love never fails – 1 Corinthians 13 v 8