Clay in the Hands

I have only seen the show a couple of times, but I really like the premise.  Undercover Boss – what a great concept.  The boss puts on a disguise and tries to blend in with the rest of the employees as one of them.

Typically, the boss takes on jobs within the company working with people he or she has never met.  The boss observes the employees and gets to know them.

By the end of the show, the boss has developed opinions about the employees with which he or she has worked.  The show wraps up each week with the boss calling each of those employees into her or his office and revealing the plot to them.  It doesn’t always turn out wonderfully for the employees, but most of the time, the employee is praised and rewarded for his or her commitment to the company.

Then the final segment of the show includes the boss addressing the entire company, explaining what has taken place.  Many times, the boss expresses a renewed passion to make the company a better place to work.  The few times I have watched the show, the boss has been emotionally affected by the experience and it shows in his or her address to the employees.  The overall result is a strengthened relationship between the boss and the employees because now, he or she knows what it is like to “be them,” and the employees have learned to see the boss as one of them.

As I watched this show for the first time, I could not help but think about how it is similar to what God did 2000 years ago.  Obviously, there are areas where the similarities break down – God did not need to know what it is like to be us, God already knows.  But, just as in the show, the end result of God coming and living among us was that there is no doubt that God truly wants a relationship with us.  We aren’t just random beings on a planet that make no difference to God.  God became one of us – to show us how to live and how to love and how to serve.  The ultimate undercover boss!