First Impressions
Those you visit will see you through the eyes of their culture. Those eyes will see many matters differently from the way you see. You may spend hours at the salon covering the gray in your hair, but your hosts may want to honor you because of your gray hair and the wisdom of age it presumes. It will not matter what label your clothes bear; only that you have clothes. And few people may care, or even notice, if you wear the same outfit twice. Children may be drawn with delight and curiosity to the freckles you’ve often cursed. Villagers will notice kindness in your eyes more than any makeup which may or may not have survived a dusty ride to their community.

Surface Tensions
The color of your skin can wield power on its own. Skin color may be an advantage when passing through customs or approaching a checkpoint in the road. The color of your skin can send a message you never spoke; it can imply actions you never undertook.

In many parts of the world, white skin is awarded this “skin privilege.” If your skin is white, you may be accorded expert status in areas where you have no expertise. People may abdicate some of their leadership when you arrive on the scene. Because of skin privilege you also may be assigned guilt for actions of white-skinned people in history. All of this can create new tensions in you.

If your skin is the same color as your hosts’, other tensions may arise. The people you visit may identify with you more readily. This identification may bring with it assumptions of a shared history that you have not experienced. This new solidarity may prompt in you a sense of homecoming you never expected. Or it may fan the embers of a longing that has smoldered in you for awhile.

Eating Humble Pie
Seeing yourself through the eyes of your host may require eating a slice of humble pie. It is not the food you expected, but it is necessary. A humble self-perception provides you with a glimpse of who you are in the world, outside of your home and your comfort zone.

Much of the trappings by which you define yourself may not be part of this new, humble self-view. Seeing how the life you have always known is linked to the lives of others halfway around the world will most likely be humbling. Understanding yourself as others see you gives you a fuller understanding of yourself as a member of the global family.

Don’t be afraid to rub your eyes and clear away the self-identity makeup you have always used. When you can look at your image in the mirror and see how you are seen by others, it is humbling. Taking this self-view is also a critical step in the reconciling work this world needs. You begin to see these new brothers and sisters’ image of you in your reflection. You may experience a new humility in how you regard yourself.

Getting to Know You
Talking with your hosts about how they perceive you can be the start of deeper discussions. You ask why your gray hair is so attractive to them and end up talking of the role of the elders in the community. They ask you how many of your children are living and how many dead, and you begin to realize that infant mortality is a routine part of parenthood for them. In your clumsy play, you show how the local teens have far more skill at basketball than you do and you begin to break down the wall of imagined expertise and status.

So let your gray hair blossom; take new delight in your freckles; begin to become comfortable with what others see in your skin. Be grateful that by the grace of God, what’s inside your skin – and your brain – is an important sign of the gospel coming alive, in plain view for others to see. Thank God for what you see in yourself, and what you see of God’s presence in those you visit.