Caution, Awesome Teacher on Duty!

A few years ago, I received a Christmas present from my teaching colleague. She gave me a bright yellow vest that we teachers wear when we are on duty.

I was a little surprised with that gift because we get vests like that at work for free. Why would she give me as a special gift something I get for free? I wondered.

But it was my size, and I liked that. But the real surprise came when I looked at the back side of the vest. Written across it were the words, “Caution, Awesome Teacher on Duty.” Now that was a different story! At first, I thought it was funny, and then I told her how nice it was of her and that she should not have bought it. However, among other things, I have to admit that I was a little impressed. Of course, in order not to offend her, I started wearing that vest whenever I was on duty so that it would not turn out to be just a souvenir.

She was very glad. The more I wore it, the more I became aware of the inscription, and it began to bother me more and more. In the end, I realized that I was in a pickle.

It was not the vest that was the problem—it was the inscription that troubled me. Am I really worthy of wearing a vest with that inscription? In essence, this colleague of mine helped me to seriously question myself. Who am I? What do I do? How do I work? And how do I behave? Because even though people see me one way on the outside, only dear God and I see what I am like on the inside. I cannot be in harmony with this inscription if I am not in harmony with my faith and relationship with God. Mission impossible! Imagine if everyone wore vests like this with the inscription, “Attention, Awesome Christian on Duty.” Do you know what that would look like? Perfection! It would remind us, every day, that this is exactly how our heavenly Father sees us, through Jesus Christ our Savior! And we, knowing that, would be grateful to Him every day and behave in accordance with that inscription.

How wonderful it would be if we could say with Jesus, “The one who looks at me is seeing the one who sent me” (John 12:45, NIV).

Durdica Kukolja