Lessons from Origami

I saw her across the room and I knew. The signs of anxiety were there. It's not too uncommon. The first Sunday morning middle school meeting can be rough on 6th graders. It's new social territory at an age where anything social can be terrifying. I saw her tentatively approach the craft table and to my relief my daughter who came in to help me started talking to her. I saw her coach her through the folds to produce a simple fortune teller and I realized something.

Doing crafts together is a great doorway into conversation. You don't have to look up. You have an excuse to focus on what your hands are doing. And conversation comes easier when you don't have to look at someones face, at least when you are that nervous, and that worried, that everyone will think poorly of you.

I also realized that even crafts can be intimidating. The fortune teller wasn't turning out super well. It was a little mashed, a little lopsided. I saw her face, the eyes start to get glassy, a murmured comment under her breath that it wasn't any good. And then I saw my daughter, a high-schooler, pick it up and say, "It's perfect! I needed one just that shape to fit right here. No other one is going to work there in that space." And she grabbed the glue gun and deftly glued it into the collage of fortune tellers that were dotting the surface of a paper lantern.

I saw some of the uncertainty disappear. There wasn't a big toothy smile, or an extreme transformation, but the worry lines relaxed. And a connection between two people was formed. A connection that would make the rest of the day better for both of them.

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We are like origami some days. Some days the folds and creases are crisp  and everything falls into place and other days things go wobbly and uneven. We feel lopsided or unfinished. God talks about pottery with clay being thrown onto a wheel, and the truth is that origami is a lot like that. Because when things turn lopsided, there is still hope. You might still fill a needed spot, in fact it might be a spot that only you can fill. And if it is so bad that someone wadded it up - well it still unfolds. There are a few fortune tellers on that lantern that have come from those wads. Unfolded. Refolded. It works. Torn edges taped. Folded back into shape. Given a spot in the big picture. A place that would otherwise be bare and empty. You'd notice that empty spot, even when you don't always see all the pieces that make up the MOSAIC.

Yeah, some days we are like origami.