Every time you meet another human being you have the opportunity. It’s a chance at holiness. For you will do one of two things, then. Either you will build him up, or you will tear him down. Either you will acknowledge that he is, or you will make him sorry that he is—sorry, at least, that he is there, in front of you. You will create, or you will destroy. And the things you dignify or deny are God’s own property. They are made, each one of them, in his own image.
There are no useless, minor meetings. There are no dead-end jobs. There are no pointless lives. Swallow your sorrows, forget your grievances, and all the hurt your poor life has sustained. Turn your face truly to the human before you and let her, for one pure moment, shine. Think her important, and then she will suspect that she is fashioned of God.
How do you say Hello? Or do you say Hello?
How do you greet the strangers? Or do you greet them?
Are you so proud as to burden your customer, your client, your neighbor, your child with your tribulation? Even by attitude? Even by crabbiness, anger, or gloom?
Demolition!
Or do you look them in the eye and grant them peace?
-Walter Wangerin, Ragman, and Other Cries of Faith, 129-130.
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