Sea of Faces
Wednesday, August 13, 2008
Today was another day for our team to join the ranks of kids at the primary school in Esmeraldas. When we arrived, we were greeted by hundreds of smiling and excited faces. I stepped out into the playground yard and was practically mobbed by two dozen kids calling out “Un photo! Un photo! Un photo!”
“Un photo” began as a group of 5 friends who wanted their picture taken together, and quickly grew into a throng of fifty. I kept backing up and backing up to fit them all into the 70mm frame, but they just kept moving toward me…a mass sea of beautiful Ecuadorian faces.
As I was out there, in that school courtyard taking pictures, I was bothered. It seemed like none of my photos were different. It felt like each picture was the same. Over and over again the pictures became, just more faces. One child’s face became one in a sea of faces.
When you are overseas, the fast paced and adventurous lifestyle is really exotic – for the first week. Then, after a little while, the “roughing it” lifestyle seems to cause all the people’s faces begin to look the same. And reaching out to one life looks exactly the same as reaching out to another life.
Why is that?
Because sometimes it is easy to believe that one life is just another life in the world.
Just another life.
But you know what? Along with the belief that a life is “just another life” is the accompanying belief that one life won’t make that big a difference in the world.
I don’t think that’s true.
Jesus said that He would go after those who were lost and had gone astray. This means that even those who are seemingly unlovely are those who have incredible value. I think in general, most Christians do believe this. But if each person has value, then we aren’t just one life amongst the sea of faces in humanity.
We are unique. We are individuals. We are handcrafted by God. We are called. We have purpose that belongs to no one else. We affect change. We must play our part.
So why do so few of us live as though it were a deep conviction?
The sea of humanity exists to be sure. But in Christ, this sea dissolves and in Paul’s words, “there is no Jew, nor Greek, nor male, nor female, nor slave, nor free.”
What is left when there are no racial, ethnic, status, and philosophical differences?
Just faces.
But behind these faces, is the incredible worth, indescribable value, and stunningly magnificent masterpiece of God:
The souls of His beloved.
If we believe that one soul has value, we must also believe that one soul will affect change.
Because one face sees another face.
And then one life touches another life.
After which one soul changes another soul.
Then another… and another.
And it happens again… and again… and again....
So what if each of us walked through life acting upon this knowledge? What if, when we look into the eyes of the person we pass in the street, or acknowledge the carwash employee we pass by, or just kept on taking pictures of beautiful foreign children…
What would this world look like if we Christians remembered that in this life, we are not just a sea of faces?
Would we see past the face? Would we see into the eyes? Would we reach a life? Would we change a soul?
Christina, for the team
Pictures courtesy of Christina Dickson.