Read With Me: Ch 3- Made to Share

Chapter three is all about the Heralds, those who don’t create beauty for their own, but instead—share it. They are the friends who love passing on a bit of information that amazes them. They are the brother who keeps sending funny gifs or loves to post reviews of his books on Goodreads. They are the daughter singing loudly and proudly in the car to her music.

What I argue in this chapter is that the tendency to share a piece of goodness, truth, and beauty wasn’t formed by social media, but by our Father who created us. My husband and I were recently faced with more evidence of this truth as we watched a couple minutes of an old rerun of America’s Funniest Home Videos. (For those who didn’t spend their Sunday evenings with their family wondering which grainy video of a kid falling would win a cash prize, the show was a conglomeration of funny home videos).

As we watched, I realized what was obvious: we had no other way to share these videos with each other back then. The internet didn’t exist. Social media feed was a group of nonsense words. The only way to share a funny video of your kid stealing licks from your grandpa’s birthday cake was by submitting it to America’s Funniest Home Videos and crossing your fingers. The show’s success proved we not only all loved sharing, but we loved being on the receiving end.

This desire to laugh, cry, think, or feel with someone else is fashioned within us. We weren’t made to be isolated humans, but to be outward-facing people who take what moves us and use it to connect with others.

Of course, what God has gifted us with to foster connection, the enemy has taken advantage of to divide. Though we have a dozen tools to herald beauty and goodness at our fingertips, we scroll through our feeds and find many who herald strife, anger, and lies. It would be easy to become cynical about the current state of our world, but I don’t think we should give up.

Because I still find the places of beauty.

I see it when I pull up the comments on a song I’m listening to on YouTube, and see, “Anybody here in 2026?” “Who is here in 2025?” “Playing this on repeat in 2020, who else is here?” They are image bearers, moved by hope and wanting to share that feeling along with another.

I see it in a stray thread on social media, where a funny story becomes the sharing of more stories and laughs.

I see it in the woman who writes a review for a book, and a couple comments excitedly below that they’ll search for it at their library.

The Lord in his grace hasn’t given us all up to destruction. His people still long to share, and to even receive. So let’s keep facing outward as heralds, proclaiming and sharing beauty in the darkness. In the small yes, but hopefully pressing us towards the ultimate, as we pass along the reason for our own hope amidst the broken. After all, we certainly have the tools to do it.

If you’ve enjoyed this series, check out my book Created to Play: How Taking Hobbies Seriously Grows Us Spiritually where I dig in deeper to each kind of hobbyist (and it’s on sale!)