For humans, labels easy to make, hard to make stick

Of all the Christmas presents that you gave or received last month, perhaps the most popular ones were surprising.

At our house, my wife and children have been having loads of fun with our new $20 hand-held electronic label maker. It was amazing.

Suddenly the Christmas decorations were in boxes professionally labeled with words like “Ornaments, Glass”; “Tinsel, Silver”; and “Tree Lights, Nonworking.”

Before long, the kids got into the act and began to do their own sort of organization.

Soon I saw labels that said: “Girls only, no boys allowed” and “Laura’s tomato soup, save for her.” A can of soda in the refrigerator was labeled “Touch at your own risk.” Unfortunately, it was all downhill from there.

Reading the paper the other day, I looked up to see the cat walk by. The various parts of his body were labeled like one of those butchers’ charts you see in the meat department at the grocery store. What was not labeled was the look on the cat’s face, which clearly communicated, “The first open door I see, I’m out of here!”

That was about the time that the labeler and supplies were all confiscated and put under lock and key to be used only with explicit parental permission for legitimate purposes, which does not include finding labels on the toes of my shoes one morning, helpfully designated “left” and “right.”

It is clear that for a time at our house the labeling got out of hand, but it also made me realize how basic it is to our human nature to label and organize.

The problem, of course, is that labeling is great for things, but lousy for people. Human beings are far too complicated to fit easily into one box or another. Labels stuck on people are inaccurate, based often on our own prejudices, and most of all can do real harm. The labeling of human beings with yellow stars is in the living memory of some of our citizens; suddenly a whole people became a group conveniently designated “different,” “not like us,” “subversive,” and – in the end – “worthy of extermination.” Holocausts begin with the labeling of others.

There weren’t label makers in biblical times, but there were, of course, plenty of labels: labels that stuck to people, labels such as “poor,” “unclean,” “Samaritan,” “tax collector,” “leper,” “sinner.” It is the ministry of Jesus and his followers to ignore society’s prejudicial labels, to redefine them, and ultimately to eliminate them altogether.

This Martin Luther King Jr. holiday weekend, we might well ponder what labels we have placed on others and what labels have been placed upon us.

Perhaps some of those from our childhoods are still stuck there: “stupid,” “ugly,” “not as good as,” “victim,” “object of abuse,” “unimportant,” “invisible.” No matter how long those labels have been stuck there, and no matter who it was that put them there, God has other labels for human beings to wear, and they are magnificent by comparison.

In the book and film “The Chronicles of Narnia: the Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe,” some remarkable children find their way into a magical land at the back of a wardrobe and are there befriended by the loving and yet fearsome lion Aslan.

Being subjected to the violence and treachery of an evil queen, the children are nonetheless protected by the lion, who gives his life in order to save theirs. As their resurrected hero comes literally roaring back to life at the end of the story, the four are given a new label by the lion king: Rather than being homeless waifs, refugees from the bombing of London and the terrors of war, they are labeled the “princes and princesses of Narnia,” royalty in the eyes of the one who matters the most.

If it is painful or demeaning for us to wear the labels that others have placed on our souls, perhaps we should try wearing God’s labels for a change, labels that describe not only who we truly are, but who we can become if our hearts are open to our Creator.

Martin Luther King Jr. dreamed of a day when folk would be judged by the content of their character rather than the color of their skin. Because he uttered those words, a whole generation could imagine and try to birth a world in which racism does not have a death grip on human souls. While King’s dream remains unfulfilled in many ways, it is clear that the dream is more powerful than its foes.

God will not in the end allow God’s children to be labeled with any titles other than the ones God has chosen for them. Such a liberating word is a gift both to oppressors and the oppressed, both of whom the Truth sets free, just as the Bible has promised.

The Rev. Thomas L. Blackstone, Ph.D., is a United Methodist pastor in Presque Isle and a brother in the Order of St. Luke. He may be reached via tlbphd@yahoo.com. Voices is a weekly commentary by Maine people who explore issues affecting spirituality and religious life.