Most of us have received a parcel by post at some time, often in a huge cardboard box.
On opening the box, there even more packaging inside: bubble-wrap, paper, lightweight polystyrene shapes, tightly packed polystyrene covers.
It can feel like a Russian doll, as layer after layer of packaging is removed, often to reveal a tiny object in comparison to the size of the box!
The packaging is intended to protect the item inside, but quite often we are confused by the packaging. You can’t guess the size of the item within from the size of the box, for example. What you see does not necessarily correspond to what you get.
Mental health is a little like the valuable item packaged in very different ways. You can’t tell from someone’s outer packaging – what they look like – if they are mentally strong or fragile. They may look fine on the outside but feel broken and in despair within. There may well be clues in their appearance – dullness of complexion, a lack of expression in the eyes, tension in their demeanour – but all too often there are no visible outward signs of the struggle within.
Just as we are urged not to judge a book by its cover or we may find it hard to guess an item from its packaging, so too we must avoid assuming that the outward appearance is all that matters in a person’s life. We all have many layers (like Shrek!), onion layers of hurt, confusion, rejection, misery and bewilderment which affect our mental health.
May is Mental Health Awareness month in the UK.
Let’s have the courage to accept the parcel of love and friendship God offers and be aware that within each person lies a precious, complex individual, made in God’s image, loved by God, unique. Let’s not be deceived by the packaging, but be willing to open our lives up and to understand that Jesus brings hope, healing and wholeness, even when our inner selves have been damaged in transit. Life has a way of knocking the packaging so that some of us feel very much like broken, damaged goods.
God does not reject anyone as unfit for purpose. Instead, He goes about restoring what is broken and making all things new.