A Fancy Relationship

My dear brothers and sisters, how can you claim to have faith in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ if you favor some people over others?

For example, suppose someone comes into your meeting dressed in fancy clothes and expensive jewelry, and another comes in who is poor and dressed in dirty clothes. If you give special attention and a good seat to the rich person, but you say to the poor one, “You can stand over there, or else sit on the floor”—well, doesn’t this discrimination show that your judgments are guided by evil motives?

James 2:1-4, New Living Translation

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Dear Alex,

Your wife led a study in judgement and prejudice from the epistle of James 2:1-7 for a few ladies and me last night. Her message for us was stark: how much stuff do we need to keep us needing more?

In your last comic squares posted, I suppose each stuff has an inherent or perceived value attached to it. The fancy blue pinwheel spinners vs. dead dull leaves scattering over the street gutter, their plunge into the abyss inevitable, would likely elicit from the average onlooker different reactions. She expects fallen organic leaves that “you can’t kill” (your words) twice to bow to its eventual deserving end.

But not for the pinwheel head— how could they roll past— who could intervene before—? Something ought to be done about the pinwheel. For justice, for endearment, for prevention. Why not someone else’s pinwheel? If I had owned more, I might not have missed this one. Or if pinwheel owns me— disowns me— ?

Maybe it’s on loan for me. Hours used in making and amassing pinwheels could too be borrowed. From design to debris, how long can I afford to keep flashing my pinwheel, churning over profits, flipping through mirages and fangs down gutter?

Yours,

Kate