Fascinating People
People are fascinating—little people, grown up people, all kinds of people. I love meeting new ones. How blessed you are to live with little people every day.
During our lunch break on our first full day in Pittsburgh this past October, we followed the advice of an employee at the Senator John Heinz History Center and made the rather long walk to the Pittsburgh neighborhood called The Strip. Entrepreneurial dreams of fascinating people surrounded us:
An Italian bread store with the slogan—”the bread that makes butter taste better” and . . .
. . . a kitchen store, a coffee and tea store, a meat market, a dried flowers store, and a candy store with rubber chickens hanging from the ceiling.
Some entrepreneurs had opened the stores of their dreams over 100 years ago.
The owners of the glass and metal store proclaimed to passersby that Jesus is Lord and King . . .
. . . and told them: “Jesus loves you.”
We chose a little sandwich shop called Peppi’s for lunch.
It was one of those shops that seems to have a sign for every contingency. First, there was the long line of menus that a long line of customers could view at the same time. It was neat to see that two of the boxes had once held apples grown in Tennessee.
Above the lady taking orders were signs for certain menu items, plus one saying they would be glad to take our orders as soon as we finished our phone calls!
Our wait was long but the yummy burgers made the wait worth it.
While I waited, I decided to take a picture of the short order cook who was grilling our burgers. When I did, the lady who took our order teased him that he was going to be famous. This began a conversation with the staff behind the counter. Soon one after the other was telling me what we must see in Pittsburgh. I loved hearing about their interest in art and in Kodiak, the Steller’s sea eagle that had recently escaped from Pittsburgh’s National Aviary.
While I was in college, I read a small gift book that encouraged people to see the value of each human being, saying that we can learn even from the “dull and uninteresting.” Those people behind the counter were not certainly not “dull and uninteresting,” but they are an example of what we can learn in a surprising setting. With all of the other things we had on our agenda in Pittsburgh, we didn’t decide to go to the art museum or aviary they recommended, but I was glad they got to enjoy a conversation about it with each other and that they shared their excitement about those places with me.
That small gift book taught me a valuable lesson which my experience has proven true for almost 50 years now.
I encourage you to teach your children to listen. While they are young, you must certainly guide their listening to protect them from evil influences. However, learning to listen and learning to show respect for everyone is an important life skill. After all, all of those fascinating people are people God created in His image and whom Jesus died to save.
Honor all people . . .
1 Peter 2:17
