Who is a witness ...?

Recently, S and I had a conversation about her understanding of being a witness.

She asked me, "Who is a witness to your life?" Who witnesses who you are as a person and what you have done in your life?

I said I wasn't sure I understood what she was asking. "Are you speaking of 'witness' as in a legal sense?"

No, she said. There are lots of other kinds of witnesses. John the Baptist was a witness. He witnessed to (or foretold of ) Jesus' coming. He also witnessed to others while Jesus did his preaching and teaching.

S said the shepherds were witnesses in the story of Jesus' birth. The angels too.

Okay, I said. A little light was emerging in the darkness of my mind.

A witness can be a person outside the legal sense. You have witnesses at a wedding. Yes, I agreed. They are people who will 'testify' or 'certify' that yes, on this day, in this place, these two people committed their lives to one another. That is certainly acting as a witness.

S believes her purpose (at least one purpose) in her life is to act or serve as a witness.

And, as my partner, I asked, what do you witness about me? S replied that I am hard on myself. There is a part of myself, deep within she guesses, that almost loathes who I am. She said, "Allow yourself to have flaws." Because I strive for such perfection, she said, I don't let others get too close, so they can't see the flaws ... the flaws that I can't bear to see in myself.

Ahh, yes. Ooh, ouch, no! The truth can be painful to hear.