When you meet someone asking for money on the street, what do you see? When a person in the office who you dislike, what do you see? When you watch a movie do you identify with some characters while disliking others?
I hope that I would answer the question simply. I see people, just people trying to survive, earn a living, doing something they love to do. If I was really mature I would add something more. As I write the questions and visualize my fingers typing answers, there is little that suggests that answers would easily come out as I would hope. Frankly I still see some colors, my biases come out as like and dislike, and there are personalities that fit easily with my preferred working and living styles while others do not. In other words, I would talk about good guys, attractive women, and bad guys and those that I could easily ignore.
It is painful to realize that my own sight blocks something that is one of the highest priorities in my life. Each person is one of God’s children. When I see them I am seeing a reflection of myself and of you. Each person shares something with me, often far more than I care to realize. We desire to be loved. We long to be part of a family. We thirst to know God even if we cannot put the thirst into words. We hope that we will be able to give and share. Even if we are good at it, fighting and arguments is not something that we engage in because we feel good about it.
What can I say to myself and to you today?
“Be generous to the poor—you’ll never go hungry; shut your eyes to their needs, and run a gauntlet of curses.” (Proverbs 28.27)
Give away grace and compassion as quickly as you can; when you turn a blind eye to others you are turning a blind eye to your self.
Love fully, openly and freely; in doing so one discovers what one seeks.
