Just Let Me Be

I love children’s books. I use them everyday in therapy with the kids at school. Recently I came across this book that I read aloud to a kid. I was amazed at how although it was a story for children, adults could also learn a valuable lesson from this clever little story. The story is called The Good Egg (John & Oswald 2020). In the story, a cute little egg tells the story. He explains how he’s a reallllly good egg. He does all of these nice things. Unfortunately, he is a part of this egg carton where the other eggs are not as good as he is. Yep, you guessed it. They’re all pretty rotten. The Good Egg tries to help them but then one day he notices he has cracks on his shell. He started cracking up. He goes to the doctor, and the doctor explains that he’s been putting too much pressure on himself. As a result, he leaves the egg carton and decides to find some time for rest. After he rests, he returns to egg carton and realizes he learns a valuable lesson— He must take care of himself and the other eggs and that it’s okay that they’re not as good as he think they should be.

After reading the story, I asked the kid what he thought the lesson of the story was. The kid responded, “You don’t have to be perfect to be good.” This really struck me because this is something I have to remember, and I think it’s a valuable lesson for all of us. How many times do we feel that way? I did this. I did that. How can I be good? We equate perfection with goodness and think that in order to be holy we must be perfect and do a bunch of good things all of the time (eggactly like the egg in the story) Pun intended here. This is a good reminder for us all to just be. To just rest. To just accept. To just enjoy the little things. Think about it. We have trouble just resting. We have things to do. We almost need to feel busy. We need to be getting things done. Rest? Really, Megan? that’s a waste of time. We have been almost conditioned to view who we are and who others are by how productive they are or their capabilities. Think about it. When you meet someone, what’s one of the first things they’ll ask you, “What do you do?” While what we do is important, it is not really your identity. You are a child of God. You are not perfect but God still thinks you are good. He sees your goodness even in the midst of your failings and imperfections.

When we put too much emphasis on our capabilities and not our “being”, we risk the danger of forgetting the value and dignity of the human from the unborn to the elderly. These precious souls may not be able to do much in the eyes of the world but still God desires their existence. Not being able to “do” anything does not take from our worth. We glorify God just by our existence, simply by our “being”. He delights in our existence. You did not exist, so God created you. Does God love you more now that you are able to do things more than when you cared and relied on others to provide for you? Of course not, His love is unchanging and unexplainable. We just are and He just loves. He wants to love us. Not because of what we do but because He is Love.

Not long after, I came across this song called “Explaining Jesus”. In the song, the musician mentions people in different situations and apologizes for how no one explained Jesus to them. In other words, those who should have reflected the light of Christ were also very broken and maybe even affected the way they saw Jesus. Later in the song, he sings, “Can’t you feel Him in the room? All He wants is you.” Again, Jesus just wants us—- all of who we are. Similar to the little egg, we must rest in this truth and help others to rest in it, too. Knowing that we are not perfect. Others are not perfect. This is okay. When we learn that Jesus desires and thirsts for our love, we develop this intimacy with Him. We become bolder and more confident knowing that we are loved. Then, we can become better witnesses for Him in the world. We accept ourselves. We accept others. We can rest in Him. We can rest well knowing that we were made in His image and likeness. Therefore, we are good. Not perfect, but good and very much cherished and loved.

Remember your goodness, dear one.

References:

John, J., Oswald, P. (2020). The Good Egg. New York, NY: Scholastic.

“Explaining Jesus” Jordy Searcy