Once upon a time, there was no Facebook or Twitter.
Blogs were called news, offered by professionals, and the professionals were still professional, sharing facts and balance, weighing each angle, scouring for truth for truth’s sake.
Once upon a time, people took the time to know one another, to look beyond a persona, beyond the brand, beyond what they could get out of the other.
Once upon a time, knowing a person meant more than perusing their page. It meant observing their words, expressions, gestures, and the level of their warmth, knowing they were offered just for you in that moment. It was face to face and voice to voice. And so,
in those days, we actually did know someone. Rather than being artificially intelligent, feigning knowledge, we took the time, respect, and care to learn.
In those times, it was normal to be in a room with another person having a face-to-face, audible conversation. The exchange of feelings and ideas was captured in real time without a camera for playback or for the world to see. It was just for you. People thought more of others’ feelings and more of God’s view than the perception of their brand. They feared God more than public opinion. No meant no and yes meant yes. People said what they meant and stood by what they said.
Once upon a time, truth was what actually happened, not just what you could prove by the evidence that surfaced, or opinions repurposed through varying lenses lilted for one’s benefit. In those times, people apologized face to face, not through lawyers or news outlets. And when we communicated, it was for the benefit of the reader or listener, considering their feelings rather than
just the gratification of purging our own.
But that was once upon a time – wasn’t it? – before the world became plastic and manufactured. When that time was, I do not know, yet it is worth investigating how to find it again… for there is beauty in relationship, purity in truth and welfare in empathy.
And though the world has become eroded by man, and reconstructed by artificial parts and fictitious truth, each of us is real – flesh and bone, knit together by its original creator. We are authentic beings, made in the image of a loving, living, creative God, who is love … who is truth. Inside, we have a heart, fashioned like His, made by Him, but we need help finding our way back.
Thankfully, He is here – Immanuel, God with us. Today He says, “I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh” (Ezekiel 36:26).
God, Help us. Help me. I don’t want to be plastic or stone, artificial or fictitious. I want to be as you created me to be – full of love and truth, full of your Spirit. Help me to be as you have designed me to be, not as this plastic world has worked to fashion. I recommit myself to you today, the creator and king of the world.
Sarah Guldalian 