People watching

It's early... too early to really want to talk to anyone… too early to want to think about anything at all. Keeping to myself, I entered the room and took my seat among 250 people who were there for the same reason I was…not because they wanted to be, but because they are citizens called to serve… yup, we were there for jury duty! I surveyed the crowed trying to figure out what kind of people I was surrounded by. There was the homely woman reading a Steven King novel to my right, she didn't seem to really even acknowledge anything going around her, very content in the fictional world of her book. There was an overweight Hispanic man to my left who seemed to be slowly creeping into my person space. I wanted to draw an invisible line with my hand down the seam of the seats just as I had done at age 6 with my little brother in the back seat of the car.... "here is the line, that is your half and this is mine." (I was a bossy young lady). The worst was the woman behind me who coughed onto my neck as if she had been challenged to a germ spreading contest. I tried not to let my imagination get carried away as I could picture the small particles flying across the room. What is it about people watching that is so incredibly fascinating? Each of us bounce around independent of each other most of our lives except for the occasional times when we visit these very public locations where all races, cultures, sexes, and ages are brought together. When I am content with staying within my bubble, I close myself off from the diversity of God's world. He is an amazing artist who has carefully crafted each and every one of us to be unique, totally different from the next. While the wait was tedious today, I was reminded of how unique I am, and how special it is that while each of us in that room was created different, we were created in God's image... his precious children.