Labels

I have become quite an avid label reader.  At first, when food shopping, it was about the total calories an item contained.  Then for those of us who need to take care of our cholesterol level it's more about the amount of saturated fat that a product contains.  The latest in the line of 'baddies' that we need to look out for is sugar, especially it seems in low fat products.  It's amazing just how much sugar and salt are added to just about everything, even to what you think are savoury products.  There is currently a series on TV about such matters.  Last week it looked at sugar in food, this week about the total calories.  Next week they will be taking an in-depth look at fats.  Oh dear, it seems we cannot win.  Years ago we didn't seem to have all these problems but of course years ago, we knew exactly what was in our food as we mostly cooked it from fresh ingredients.  All this labeling is useful if you're trying to maintain a decent quality of healthy food in your diet, especially as so much of what we consume is now already processed for our convenience - although I still prefer to prepare meals from fresh so I know exactly what's in them.  

It's not just in food though that we see people checking labels.  Some people prefer clothing with certain brand name labels rather than others.  When I look at clothing labels it's not so much for the name of the maker but rather how to take care of it and wash/iron it.  When I buy items of crockery, pots and pans etc. then I look to see if I can use them in the microwave, oven or dishwasher.  That's because I really don't want to break something or spoil it by putting it in the microwave or oven if it's not made to withstand the high heat.  As regards the dishwasher and washing machine, it does seem a bit pointless buying something that I need to wash by hand when the whole point of having a machine is to save me from that very activity.  When it comes to clothing if it says 'do not iron', that's an added bonus.  So again, labels are very useful and in some cases quite necessary in order to know exactly what we are purchasing and if it meets our requirements.

Labels tell us a lot about where something was made, what's it's made from and what are its uses.  The problem is that we tend to label things that can't really be labelled.  Sticking a label on doesn't necessarily tell us everything we want or need to know.  When we define people with a label, we might get some idea of what they believe (Christian, Muslim, Jew, Hindu etc) or where they come from (Britain, Asia, Africa etc) or their sexuality (gay, straight, trans or bisexual) but such labels don't really tell us about the person behind the label.  We can't know from a label if there is any unseen or invisible disability.  We don't know what financial or emotional struggles someone is experiencing just by seeing that they happen to be 'white European' for example (or any other combination of labels).  People can so often put on a brave face, keep smiling when they are actually going to pieces deep inside.  How many people get conned out of money by someone who 'looked' trustworthy and dressed smartly?  Labeling someone by their outward appearance is not really knowing that person.  You can have a fair idea of goods you buy by their labels but you can't use the same method of getting to know a person simply by putting them in a certain box or category.  Sadly we do this too much.  Just as you can't judge a book by its cover, so you can't know a person by a label that some people want to stick on them.  Labels judge people, friendship gets to know them.  

Lord, help me not to pigeon-hole people just by their religion, ethnicity, sexuaity or outward appearance but help me to love and treat them all as You do by looking deeper and trying to get to know them better.