In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven. —Matthew 5:16 (NIV)
One of my first jobs was in the marketing department for a factory that made rubber gaskets. During my training, the boss took me into a storage room and showed me the many parts they made for other manufacturers, the seals around windshields and other rubber gaskets. Then he took a can of cheese from his windowsill, flipped it over, and showed me a little rubber nub on the bottom of the can. “We make these, too,” he said proudly, “and without these, no cheese.”
I had no idea how the little nub on a bottom of a can of cheese worked, but I was in awe of his presentation. There were so many little things I had never noticed or wondered about, and just like that, my perspective on the world shifted. I would go into a store and pick up a can of soup and before putting it in my grocery cart, I would think about all the work involved to get that can on the shelf—the manufacturing of the can, the soup itself (including the growing of the ingredients), the making of the label, the delivery of the can, and then the person who put it on the shelf. There were so many parts of the process I had never once considered.
For the first time in my life, common objects represented teamwork, hard work, passion, and determination. People putting their hearts and minds together so seamlessly and perfectly that their role is, for the most part, invisible to many, and yet the fruits of their labor benefit each one of us.
Dear Lord, today on Labor Day, thank You for the workers of the world, who do their jobs so well we often forget all that they do to make the world a better place.
