Unique

Photo by Kira auf der Heide on Unsplash

I started watching The Good Doctor on (Netflix). I love the main character Dr. Shaun Murphy and how he challenges “normal.”

It starts with him arriving at a hospital as a surgical resident and having to prove that he has what it takes to do his job despite being autistic.

As the other doctors are aware, they don’t pass comments, but you often see these characters sharing glances and raising eyebrows when something happens that falls outside expected “normal” behavior.

Watching these interactions reminds me how careful and disciplined I need to be with my facial gestures and not just my voice. Raised eyebrows or shared glances can be so much louder (both in volume and in meaning) than spoken words.

The wonderful character of Dr. Shaun Murphy also reminds me that each of us is made in God’s image and for His purpose. Yet despite this truth, we live in a world where the path to “in-ness” is very narrow, squeezing out as many as it can that don’t fit the main criteria of “being normal”. And narrowing even further with categories of success, beauty, and talent.

I wonder what would happen if we dropped the word “normal” and instead consciously sought to perceive the beauty and magnificence in everyone, seeing through God’s eyes?

Valuing and accepting the quirkiness of others is also valuing and accepting the quirkiness in me. Each one of us is one hundred percent unique. We are a body [of people] after all, and we are meant to be different.

”I want you to think about how all this makes you more significant, not less. A body isn’t just a single part blown up into something huge. It’s all the different-but-similar parts arranged and functioning together. If Foot said, “I’m not elegant like Hand, embellished with rings; I guess I don’t belong to this body,” would that make it so? If Ear said, “I’m not beautiful like Eye, transparent and expressive; I don’t deserve a place on the head,” would you want to remove it from the body? If the body was all eye, how could it hear? If all ear, how could it smell? As it is, we see that God has carefully placed each part of the body right where he wanted it.“ 1 Corinthians 12:14-18 MSG