I recently watched part of “Entertaining Angels,” a movie about the life of Dorothy Day. One scene in particular moved me deeply and has stayed with me till now. (You can watch it here.) In this scene, Dorothy comes home to find her good friend Maggie stealing all her money for a drink. In a fit of rage, Maggie assaults Dorothy. Just as Dorothy is about to fight back, she suddenly softens toward Maggie and says to her, “I see the light in you.” Dorothy then proceeds to speak of all the redeeming qualities she sees in her friend, rendering her defenseless against grace.
In scriptures, Jesus tells us two back-to-back parables that illustrate to us this extravagantly gracious nature of our God. In the first, a prodigal son is unexpectedly welcomed home (Luke 15). In the second, a sly and sneaky manager is surprisingly commended for being clever (Luke 16). God sees the good in us and doesn’t hesistate to call it out by naming it.
I once heard a psychologist explain a graph called the JoHari window. It describes, in four quadrants, the relationship between what we know about ourselves, what we don’t know about ourselves, what others know about us and what others don’t know about us. The psychologist also made a remarkable observation: for most people, the majority of what they don’t know about themselves but others know about them are positive things.
As I’ve reflected on this idea that most of us go about our lives having no clue about the goodness that lies within us, I am moved to ask God to help me be a person who both sees and calls out this good in others. Afterall, this is what God does as well.