This is the time of year when human chicks get their school reports. And I wonder what kind of messages they will receive from their teachers. Because humans, all too often, like to write each other off. And sometimes, if a human doesn’t fit into a particular mould, they’re considered to be a failure. And that can make the human world a very hard place in which to exist.
The other day, I had a quiet roost on my ‘study’ perch, gazing down on an article published in “Country Life.” And it listed a whole lot of comments that famous humans had received in their school reports. Comments which show just how limited human insight can be!
Jilly Cooper (author): “Jilly has set herself an extremely low standard, which she has failed to maintain.”
Winston Churchill (UK Prime Minister): “...is a constant trouble to everybody and is always in some scrape or other. He cannot be trusted to behave himself anywhere.”
Gary Lineker (footballer and TV presenter): “He must devote less time to sport if he wants to be a success.”
John Lennon (member of ‘The Beatles’): “Certainly on the road to failure…hopeless…rather a clown in class…wasting other pupil’s time.”
Albert Einstein (physicist): “He will never amount to anything.”
Roald Dahl (author): “A persistent muddler. Vocabulary negligible, sentences malconstructed. He reminds me of a camel.”
Oh dear. The folly of mankind! Because God knows that there is always huge potential in every single one of us. Yes, even in humans that are angry, lazy, immoral, dishonest or disruptive. Which is why Jesus spent so much of His time with the sinners, the outcasts and the fallen folk of His day. Of course, there will always be some humans that go off the rails and who cannot be helped. But so very many others are simply waiting for their chance to flourish and to grow. There’s so much unfulfilled potential all around the world; there are so many humans just wanting someone, somewhere, to believe in them; and there are countless humans who are yet to discover that God has always believed in them, despite their failings.
I wonder what my very own fledgling report would have said? Probably something along these lines:
· Needs to become better housetrained.
· Has a beak which gets him into endless trouble.
· Causes endless confusion through his mimicry.
· Regularly steals food from both the table and the dog bowl.
· He’s living proof that nothing very good can ever come out from an egg!
Well, all I can say is ‘just look at me now!’
“I would go to the deeps a hundred times to cheer a downcast spirit.”
(Charles Spurgeon: [1834-1892]: English Baptist Minister, still referred to today as ‘The Prince of Preachers.’)
“We must never undervalue any person. The workman loves not that his work should be despised in his presence. Now God is present everywhere, and every person is his work.”
(Francis de Sales: [1567-1622]: French Savoyard Catholic prelate who served as Bishop of Geneva, and who was later made a Catholic saint.)
“If, instead of a gem or even a flower, we could cast the gift of a lovely thought into the heart of a friend, that would be giving as the angels give.”
(George Macdonald: [1824-1905]: Scottish author, poet and Christian minister)
“Therefore encourage one another and build each other up, just as in fact you are doing.”
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