Tread Gently

Tread gently

It was one of those things that I had the privilege to relearn.

Someone far more adroit and perceptive than I pointed out that in the gospel stories we are only ever just given a quick snapshot of a person's life. We are not told what happens before or after the encounter with Our Lord.

Take for example the woman caught in adultery in John 8. The incident probably only took a few minutes. Long enough for the Master to doodle in the dust and for the older ones to drop their rocks and walk away.

This woman did have a hidden life before she was embarrassed. Did she have a husband, boyfriend or children? Was there goat stew in the oven when she was caught? We are not told. And what happens when the incident is over? Did she manage to get on with her life, a different life or simply leave town to start all over again in a different community? We simply don’t know and perhaps it is none of our business anyway.

So here’s the thing. We all have a backstory. We did not arrive in this place, in this form, out of a vacuum. Life and circumstance and accident and choices have all led up to making us who we are at this point in time. All we have before us is a snapshot. Sometimes fantastic, colourful, grey and drab, sometimes unfortunate, sometimes memorable.

And everyone we encounter also has a ‘back story’ Most of it we can never know so we should always tread gently.