Numbers 13:3

"We saw the Nephilim giants there…we seemed like grasshoppers in our own eyes, and we looked the same to them."

Reflection by Lillian Daniel

One year during the holidays, I was buying a magazine at a tiny concession stand in the airport when suddenly, in walked these six enormous people. They were bigger than anyone I had ever seen in real life. In fact, the women were bigger than most men I know. Suddenly there really wasn't room for anyone else.

But I stuck around for three distinct reasons. One, I couldn't move. Two, I didn't want to irritate them in any way. And three, I was having the strong feeling that I was with people who were famous, but I didn't quite know why.

The women wore high-heeled boots and their hair was bleached and teased. The men were as wide as refrigerators. But they all wore similar tee shirts that I wriggled around to read: "World Wrestling Federation." I was surrounded by professional wrestlers.

And there was one of them, his face on the cover of the celebrity magazine in front of me. I realized I buying a magazine right behind the most famous wrestler of the day: The Rock.
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I remember three things about my encounter with the Rock. He was very polite. He used exact change. And he was reading the latest issue of The Economist.

So now I confess. I did not expect the professional wrestler to be reading The Economist, the British magazine of international news, politics, business, and technology.

But why didn't I? Shame on me, for stereotyping.

Prayer

I thank you God that I never know who I will meet, or what he will be reading or what you have in store for the complex creatures you have created. Thank you, God, for giants, grasshoppers and Economist-reading wrestlers. Amen.

About the Author Lillian Daniel is the senior minister of First Congregational Church, Glen Ellyn, Illinois. She is the co-author of This Odd and Wondrous Calling: the Public and Private Lives of Two Ministers and author of the upcoming When "Spiritual But Not Religious" is Not Enough.

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