The Genuine Article

Today, we went to the mall. We had some shopping to do for me. I needed work clothes for my new job on Monday. We also stopped in another department store while my wife looked over some female clothing articles that were on sale.
While she was looking, I (having two large bags of shirts and slacks on the floor beside me) stood to the side of an aisle waiting for her to make her selections. While I was standing there, a mom and little boy walked by. The boy, no more than about two years old, stopped in front of me and looked up intently.
I had been waiting for some time and pretty much ignored people who went by. I also overtly ignored this little boy by looking straight ahead, as I knew he was looking at me as if I might be a mannequin. I thought that if I smiled or spoke, it might frighten him. I could, however, see him in my peripheral vision.
I know it never entered into this boy’s mind why a male mannequin model would be placed in blue jeans and scruffy flannel shirt in an aisle between bras and womens’ shoes, but nevertheless, I think he thought I might be made of plastic.
His mom took his hand after a couple of seconds of his looking up at me and said, “C’mon, son.” A few steps down the aisle, she looked at him and said, “Yep, he’s real.”
Now I’ve never thought much about that before this afternoon, but I really have to wonder if people in the past have had to look at me more than once in order to determine if I was real…the genuine article. If so, that’s really rather sad. It seems that it shouldn’t take a lot of critical, close inspection of anyone to determine the genuineness of that person.
I hope I remember that little boy as he looked up at me. I hope that I never have to wonder whether or not people are seeing the genuine article when they look at my life. And I hope that the genuine person that others see is the person that I really am and that God wants me to be.