Dusty Folks Made in the Image of God

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As I headed out the door from our Kroger grocery store in nearby Cookeville last Friday, I followed a young, muscular man, much shorter than most of the men I saw in Kroger that day — even shorter than I. I felt confident that he was from Central America — or that his parents or grandparents were.

When we moved to Cookeville in 1993, the local high school had two African American students — two. Students from Central America? I am guessing that number was probably zero. All that has changed in a couple of decades. Now most grocery stores in our area have sections devoted to foods from Mexico and Central America. The demographics have changed drastically. Even little Gainesboro has a Mexican restaurant with a native chef.

When I got outside our Kroger on Friday, Ray sent me a text from over by the gas pumps, reminding me that we needed ice. Back I went to the ice cooler, where an African American man was loading the cooler. He moved his cart of ice out of the way for me so I could get out one bag of ice while he loaded a bunch of bags.

The man with Central American heritage came back in the exit door he and I had both exited a few minutes before. I found it interesting that we both had needed to return so quickly. Needing one more thing is pretty universal.

I headed over to the same cashier who had checked me out the first time. The young man absent-mindedly gave me the same greeting he had given me a few minutes before, something like, “How’s your day going?” About that time, he looked up with embarrassment; recognizing me, he realized he had said the same thing to me five minutes before. “About the same as before,” I joked.

For a brief moment, I was one more woman needing her groceries checked out before a young man suddenly realized that I was a person. Our Heavenly Father never loses sight of that. He knows each of us as a person He created in His image.

He knows that sometimes we have to stop the big jobs we are doing so that someone else can do the little jobs they need to do.

He knows that we are people who make mistakes, people who sometimes treat other people like they are something other than a real live living human soul.

He knows that we are living in a strange land far away from the homeland we long for — a home forever with Him.

I am sad that people look down on other people because they come from a different heritage. I believe that we should all obey the laws of our land, but I can’t tell whether any one individual is in America legally or illegally just by noticing that he has certain physical characteristics. The only way I can know that is by getting to know him and treating him like a person created in the image of God. In a world torn apart by prejudice, I know that:

. . . He made from one man every nation of mankind
to live on all the face of the earth,
having determined their appointed times and the boundaries of their habitation,
that they would seek God, if perhaps they might grope for Him and find Him,
though He is not far from each one of us . . . .
Acts 17:26-27

Respect for every person and the reality of every person’s need for Jesus are two of the important lessons we teach our children.

For He Himself knows our frame;
He is mindful that we are but dust . . . .

But the lovingkindness of the Lord is
from everlasting to everlasting on those who fear Him,
And His righteousness to children’s children,
To those who keep His covenant
And remember His precepts to do them.
Psalm 103:14, 17-18

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