One Message for the Entire World

My wife has an embroidery machine and makes good use of it.  While I was attending graduate school for my Master's degree, I generally carried my computer with me in a briefcase-style black, fabric bag that had a flap at the top of one side that is roughly four inches wide.  At some point I determined that I wanted my wide to embroider a message on it; this message would be visible to everyone as I walked from place to place, as I sat doing homework, as I waited for the bus, as I sat on the bus, and essentially as I did anything else.

I had pondered something: If I had an opportunity to say one thing to anyone I met, or to the entire world all at once, what should I say?  This embroidered message would serve as well as any to communicate with the world, especially given that I would never have a chance to actually speak with many people who saw me (perhaps driving by in a vehicle or merely being part of a large group that I would have no reason to address verbally).  What message would be the most important?  In accordance with principles of good marketing (I assume, given that I'm not a true student of marketing), any message must be short to get and hold people's attention for the duration of the message.  In any event there was only so much space on the flap where the message was to be put.  So, I needed something that was, as the pithy expression goes, “short and sweet”.  And in a world where so many ideas are promoted and so many of them are misguided or simply false, I wanted my message to echo core a truth.

If the world is to know one thing, there are perhaps several candidates, including the knowledge that we are all children of God.  More specifically, we are children of an all-loving God.  His love is manifest the most in the existence of our Savior, Jesus Christ (see John 3:16).  As a follower of Jesus Christ, I have promised something: “...the second [great commandment] is ... Thou shalt love thy neighbour” (Matthew 22:39), and my “neighbor” is everyone else on the earth.

I want to be a good brother to God’s children and a good disciple of Christ, so, I chose my message and my wife placed it on the flap of my bag:

I love you.

I chose a simple, light-blue font that I hoped would be visible from quite a distance.  And I carried that message about, from day to day, visible to anyone and everyone.

The prospect of giving even one person such a potentially powerful and intimate message can be daunting, and surely, despite all of my best efforts, I do not always succeed in showing love as I ought to.  But as I carried my case and message, it struck me that I really was giving people a promise, and it was no small promise.  It’s easy to say, “I will love everyone,” when we’re in a small room occupied by only a few people we already like.  It’s easy to say, “I will love the entire world,” when we don’t have to and in any practical sense cannot demonstrate it.  It was something else to physically carry that message and promise to hundreds and thousands of people, most of whom I wouldn’t even be able to see or acknowledge, either at all or perhaps for only a few seconds in passing.

In giving anyone and everyone that message, I potentially exposed myself to ridicule, but a far greater concern to me was that anyone I saw could call me out on the promise.  Anyone could say, “Prove it!” and to be true to myself, to them, and to God, I would have to really act and speak in accordance with the words I was professing.  I was highly conscious of this.  I knew that if I were to say it, I would have to live it.  And I was willing, because it really is crucial for a disciple of Christ.

Realistically, I didn’t expect that “calling out” and proving to happen often.  In practice, only two people ever commented verbally to me about the message, and in both cases I was caught off guard and I failed to clarify that it was my message to the world, as opposed to my wife’s message to me.  In a funny sort of way, it wasn’t immediately easy to speak about.  I think that if I had the opportunity again, it would now be easier for me to say that yes, I love you, and even if I do so imperfectly I’m determined to do so truly.

While almost no one ever spoke to me about the message, I know that many people saw it.  I think that it brought a smile to some.  Perhaps it caused some people to ponder.  I have to assume that it was also offensive in a way to some, though I certainly couldn’t feel bad about that.  I wonder if, maybe, there might have been people who saw it who really needed to receive that message from someone.  Did I pass anyone who was feeling alone in the world, who felt less so for seeing me?  Was there anyone in the lower depths of despair, perhaps even suicidal, who rose a bit higher for knowing that at least one person out there loved them?  I don’t know.  I hope that my message was felt and helped people.

I later heard mention of a bus driver who had a habit of announcing over the P.A. system that, “Even if no one else loves you, I love you,” and I was both touched by the overtness and glad that I had chosen my message.

When I decided to leave a final message in my social media profile, I was able to make it longer, but I began and ended with a slightly longer version of those same words: I love you.

Last thoughts for now:

I love you.  I promise to show it.  I will fail in that promise at times, but I believe that there are few things more important that I can say or show, so I will do what I can to say it and show it.