Whose Eyes

Do You Have?

 

 

Somewhere in time, a few weeks ago, I was getting groceries.  The store had a young man out in the parking lot gathering up shopping carts. He was heading my way and my cart was almost empty, so I called out to him.  I said, “hey, wait a minute and I’ll give you this cart”.  He never stopped walking.  I thought, well, maybe he didn’t hear me.  So I said it louder, “hey, wait” -but he just blew past me like he never heard a word I said.

This kind of irritated me.  I took my empty cart and put it away all the while mumbling under my breath. 

I have been back to that store several times and whenever I see that young man, I think – there he is, the kid who thought he was too good to put away my cart.

Then God opened my eyes.  I saw the young man was wearing a hearing aid.  He really didn’t hear me call out. 

Now I felt like an idiot.

How many times to we make assumptions because we don’t have all the facts.  We see the exterior, but we have no idea of what goes on inside.

1 Samuel 16:7English Standard Version (ESV)

⁷ But the Lord said to Samuel, “Do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature, because I have rejected him. For the Lord sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart.”

How would our lives change, if we could see the hurt in a person who’s rude?  What if we could see insecurities in some one puffed up with self-pride? What if we could see the pain behind the sarcastic statements?

If we could see as Jesus sees, our lives would be different. If we could see people with the eyes of Christ, we wouldn’t be so quick to judge.

My prayer is that the Lord will lend me his eyes to see those I need to see.  Those I can be kind to when they are upset.  Those I can show compassion to.  Lord give me your eyes.