As a child I loved badges. Even as a young adult, they were important to me. For several years I would wear them regularly and even had some colourful braces to attach them to. At one stage I had a mug in my desk drawer with a large assortment of my badges. Then of course as you grow up and feel you no longer need such things, or they had lost their significance or were just taking up space in a fit of tidying many were thrown out.
However, there are some which I have kept, others which I have been given more recently, so now those I keep are more intentional. Some commemorate a onetime event such as our memorable family holiday to Canada where we went on the Rocky Mountaineer train from Vancouver via Kamloops to Jasper. Or our daughter-in-law’s hen weekend away a time of joy and laughter, a reminder of family and connections.
Then there are the ones which took a lot of time to earn, and which were awarded for effort and hard work. My medals from when I used to do ballroom dancing. There was never a guarantee that on the day of the examination I would remember all that I had practiced and be able to apply it, they are a reminder of effort, determination and much practice.
When I finished my year at Cliff College I was presented with a badge as a commemoration and a reminder of the work and the time spent learning there. My URC Lay preachers’ badge presented, but not asked for as a gift to all the preachers within the URC. These are ones which took time, effort and focus to achieve, or a reminder of ongoing time and commitment, and which I feel honoured to be able to wear.
Badges are rather like the labels we give ourselves – wife, mother, white, British, female, employed, preacher etc. Those we encounter can and do make a quick judgement based on the label we present, for some my Cliff College badge with its conservative evangelical outlook may feel opposed to their own theological viewpoint and so they judge me before they hear my voice and get to know me.
Jesus spoke in John 4 with the woman at the well, and afterwards she says of him, ‘he told me everything I have ever done’. There is a completeness in the way that we are known by God, fully and deeply with all aspects of our character flaws, gifts and talents. He does not see us only as the labels we give to ourselves but truly and to the depth of our beings.
We are called not just to care for those who have the same label as us, sharing our faith, choice of music, family situation but to ‘love our neighbour as ourselves’ regardless of any badge or label they wear as each of our neighbours are created in the image of God and unique, far more than a selection of labels could ever explain.