In the Eye of the Beholder

I have a really old putty knife. It’s made of brass that is tarnished with lots of scratches. The handle is worn, splintered wood with half of the handle missing on one side. In short, it’s not worth much, and isn’t effective for use any more. However, it is one of my most prized tools because it belonged to Gerald Garrett, a handyman for whom I worked while home from college a few summers. Gerald was one of the hardest working people I’ve known, and I learned a lot from him. When he passed, his wife gave me Gerald’s favorite putty knife! The knife if priceless in my eyes because it’s connected to Gerald. No one else knows that, so to them it’s just an old broken putty knife among putty knifes. “Blessed are you when you are excluded on account of the Son of Man,” Jesus said in Luke 6. It’s not who you are, what you do; it’s who you’re connected to… Jesus.