Fingerprints

Who hasn't taken the opportunity to write in some frosty glass? Or make a hand print? It's like a right of passage in the cooler months of the year. And when the frost goes away, the print does too. Or so we think. The next time the glass fogs up, the print will reappear- it's like magic to a kid.

When my brother was young, he showed a talent in anything mechanical. By the age of 13, a local small engine shop hired him to fix lawn mowers and along with that talent came greasy hands. We always knew where Brad had been by the fingerprints he left behind. And although this was a minor nuisance to the one who had to clean up the greasy prints... the prints followed him to a career in mechanical engineering.

Now that I have boys, I often clean up sticky hand prints from food, dirt and crafts. But, that's what we do... We use our sense of touch on millions of items each day. And everywhere we go, we leave our fingerprints- visible or not. Webster's Dictionary defines fingerprint as something that identifies: as a trait, trace or characteristic of revealing origin. Fingerprints reveal who you are.

Every time you touch your children, you are leaving characteristics of you all over them. What type of fingerprints will you leave behind? Every time you interact with the people at work, traces of you fill the room. What will you write on their frosty windows? And whenever you interact with the world, your traits stick to everything you touch. What type of imprint will you leave on the world?

Ephesians 4 urges us to live a life worthy of the calling we have received. We will one day be held accountable for the millions of fingerprints we are responsible for. I challenge you to ponder the prints that identify you each day.