A Fat Mermaid

At MVHS, the art students made pictures that 1st graders from OES drew, come alive. The project was to draw a monster, but my little sister Danni insisted she only wanted to do a mermaid, and fortunately, got her wish. She received 2 mermaids, and was excited with both of them and put them on her dresser at home.

Flash forward to this morning. Danni and I were sitting on my bed talking (we share a room until I leave). Maddi ran in and started playing around with us, when she exclaimed, looking up, "Mermaids!"
Danni then looked at me and said:

"Everyone says the skinny one is better because the other one is fat, but I don't think so at all. I think they both are good. I think the "fat" one's artist got more of the colors I wanted right, but the skinny one does look more similar to my picture. So to me it doesn't matter that one is skinny and one's fat I think they both are great." 

I was in awe that my little (and very skinny) little sister would proudly put two mermaids up and acknowledge her love for both of them, regardless of their weight. One thing I loved is she pointed to the makers more than the art, she said, "one artist got this right... and the other got this right" and only noticed the beauty of both, which in turned helped her to love both.

What if we looked at others this way? What if we looked and said, "Wow God really gave this person this great quality!" And only noticed the good in every person? 

What if we could look at ourselves in this way? What if we stopped staring at the mirror and criticizing a masterpiece that we didn't even make? Had my little sister said to one of the artists, "I know you spent a lot of time on this, but I don't want it because she's so fat compared to the other one," I can imagine the artist feeling hurt. This leads me to think of God and what He must feel when we compare ourselves to others and hate the masterpiece he has made. Those thoughts come from The Adversary who lacks what?... A BODY. So hmmm... I wonder if the Adversary is really telling the truth and our bodies really are just a mistake God made, or if he is lying to us because he envies the fact that we have a body so much. [Spoiler: It's the second option]. 

To love God's masterpieces, is to accept His divine ability to create beautiful things. Because His creations are really just that... pieces made by The Master. 

As C.S. Lewis put it, 

"It is a serious thing to live in a society of possible gods and goddesses, to remember that the dullest most uninteresting person you talk to may one day be a creature which,if you say it now, you would be strongly tempted to worship, or else a horror and a corruption such as you now meet, if at all, only in a nightmare. All day long we are, in some degree helping each other to one or the other of these destinations. It is in the light of these overwhelming possibilites, it is with the awe and the circumspection proper to them, that we should conduct all of our dealings with one another, all friendships, all loves, all play, all politics. There are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal."