Commentary on the Gospel of
The Pygmalion Effect (also called Rosenthal Effect) is a psychological phenomenon wherein the hopeful expectations and dreams that one has about another person positively influences the performance of the latter. Research has shown how the positive expectations of teachers correlate with better performance of students. Now, imagine the Pygmalion Effect of God’s words on Jeremiah! Here is a young man with no little inferiority complex: He has a poor self-image; he does not believe he can even speak properly. But God thinks of him differently. God has already thought of Jeremiah highly, knowing him even before he was conceived, setting him apart even before he was born! How can such dream of God go waste? It is no wonder that Jeremiah would grow into the image God had of him. God has similar dreams and hopes for each one of us. We are all uniquely called into life. What prevents us from trusting God’s dream and growing into his image of us?