Valuing Every Human Story

Valuing Every Human Story

Written by Dan McDonald

 

            I have been working long hours. I have struggled to write a blog close to my heart. It is not ready. I came home after working a twelve hour shift as I have every day for more than a week. I sat for a moment in the recliner and did not wake up until early in the morning. My sleep cycle is now officially out of whack. I looked at Facebook and Twitter. On Twitter, I read an intriguing tweet written by Caille Millner

           

 

 

            I have officially followed Caille Millner on Twitter for some time. I have no idea how long. I saw her tweet this morning and realized I had probably never read one of her tweets before. I follow people to gain a wider perspective in life, and then don’t have the time to read much of what they have to say. I was intrigued by her quote enough to look at her profile on Twitter. She is a writer with the San Francisco Chronicle, has a site on the internet, has written some short stories and describes herself as a cranky cosmopolitan. Now I am more intrigued about her life story than ever before.

            But this is not really a blog about Caille Millner. It’s a blog about how every human life is an interesting story with intriguing facets that if we knew about them would draw our attention to that person’s human story. It is a blog about how my not being able to realize and know the life stories of any individual on this earth perhaps diminishes my experience of humanity. But who can have the time to take notice of and follow every story of every human life? The reality is on a rainy day in a big city you will pass by a hundred strangers of whom you will likely never know the name of a single person in the crowd, but if ever you had the opportunity you would discover an intriguing facet of each of the lives you pass by in the rain.

 

 

Every stranger we pass by in the rain has an intriguing life story

            The realization that every human being that I have taken notice of has an intriguing life story helps transform my perspective of life.

            I think about how we think of marriage. There are many reasons for marriage, for love, for happiness, for having children and bringing them into the world because life is something we want to see continue even beyond our stay on this earth. But perhaps marriage is first and foremost the desire to know one human life other than our own intimately because we sense that there is something in every human life that is an intriguing story deserving to be noticed, followed, and nurtured. But we can’t know every human life so we seek to commit ourselves to especially one human life and we make it our lifetime work.

            This also transforms how I think of faith. For who can follow every human life and every human story? The only one who can is the one who has numbered every hair on our heads. He is able to follow every tweet and peep of a human life and he who is love is appreciative of every moment, every success, every failure, every bit of pain and joy. He knows and such knowledge is far too wonderful for me to contemplate. But this vision gives me a new inspiring thought to pursue in life. If I am by faith connected to the God who knows and values every human story, then gradually by being connected to him I will be connected to the story of all humanity. What is eternity but to learn to love all that God loves? I have been connected to God and in this connection I will learn to value every human life. The tweet in the morning will remind me that every human life has a story intriguing to the God who counts every hair upon our head. The stranger we pass by in the rain is not a stranger to the author of their lives.