One shell, two distinct looks. One side is light in color and has a very ragged edge. The other side is darker in color and more regularly shaped. I could neither open it further nor close it. I wonder what kind of creature called it home.
If you were sorting shells by color, where would this one go? Our instinct, when we meet someone new, is to fit them into our mental framework, assigning them an identity as a starting point. Black or white, Democrat or Republican, religious or atheist, cat person or dog person. The truth is, though, that we are all living somewhere in the middle. It can be a challenge to see ourselves that way, let alone others.
I love that this shell reminded me this morning that things don't always fit neatly in categories. How might we be curious about the totality of an individual, rather than just whatever one side we see first? How might we seek to open the shell and peer inside? How might we learn to see the loving hand of the Creator in everything and everyone we encounter?
