It turns out that in the world of emojis there are winners and losers. Of the nearly 3,000 to choose from, amongst the winners are those that feature hearts or faces, accounting for nine out of ten most regularly used. Amongst the losers are ‘Input symbol for Latin capital letters’ and ‘Aerial tramway.’
The good news for neglected emojis, however, is that there are people who care. For a long time ‘Aerial tramway’ was the least popular emoji in the world until its plight was noticed on Twitter and a campaign launched to lift it from the bottom. After days of posting and reposting tweets featuring dozens of copies the emoji, it finally overtook ‘Input symbol for capital letters.’
Similarly, in life there are winners and losers. Of the 7 billion people who inhabit our planet some seem to be exalted and valued while others are neglected and forgotten. The heart of the Christian Gospel is that every one of us is of equal value in the eyes of the God who created us, and Jesus went out of his way to notice and welcome the poor, the rejected and the marginalised. I’ve no doubt that had he had a Twitter account ‘Aerial tramway’ and ‘Input symbol for Latin capital letters’ would have been among his favourite emojis.
