Well, Father, today’s been different – beyond church this morning, not my norm. But things were accomplished, and we had an enjoyable night of food and fellowship at the church decorating. Thank You for Your blessings!
********
I often see cats sitting on railings along my bus route. On decks, on porches, they are just perched there eyeing the world around them. I’m sure they’re scoping out for mice or birds or some other tasty tidbit and the height gives them a distinct advantage. Believe it or not, I think we could learn something from that.
Oft times we develop tunnel vision. Or maybe we’re more like horses with blinders. All we see is what is right before us. We’re not very good at seeing anything beyond that. Granted many of us are doing good to keep just enough ahead of the things that clamor for our attention to retain our sanity. Anything else added to our load and we might just lose it!
But what if we changed our perspective? Instead of just focusing on our own lowly lives, and exclusively honing in on our interests, what if we took a higher road? What if we trained our hearts and minds to watch out for those in need? I’m not excluding those who obviously need help, but what if we began to notice the unnoticeable? …the wallflowers of our society?
Sometimes they deliberately set themselves apart. Remember, in school, those who never really sat with anyone but made a point of finding a seat in a far-off corner, alone and interacting with no one? The older we get the better they’ve become at blending in with the scenery. They don’t bother anyone and they, at least on the outside, don’t want anyone to bother them.
There are some out there that truly don’t want people to interact with them and work very hard at keeping it that way. But many people crave…they yearn for human interaction. They might freak out a bit if someone did speak with them, but they’d love to have a friend…someone to talk to and laugh with.
Interestingly enough, I believe that there are those with whom we interact on a regular basis who are social and interactive but they are hurting, they are lonely and nobody sees it.
Think about Zacchaeus. He buried himself so deeply in his chosen profession, that he became an outcast. Granted he wasn’t a nice person and took advantage of others, often taking far more than his fair share so as to line his own pockets… with an evil grin on his face to boot!
One day he heard that Jesus was in town and he so wanted to see Him. Being short in stature, he got creative and climbed a sycamore-fig tree which gave him the height advantage he desired. All he wanted was to see Jesus. I don’t think that in his wildest dreams he ever would’ve thought that Jesus would see him, much less call him down and want to eat with him, but that’s exactly what Jesus did!
Interestingly enough, Zacchaeus perched himself high in the tree but it was Jesus who saw to the heart of Zacchaeus’ issues. He saw his loneliness. There was probably nothing that Zacchaeus withheld from himself, but Jesus saw His need…his true need.
Jesus saw past exteriors and masks. And with the Holy Spirit in our lives, we can, too.
Lord Jesus, may we train ourselves to see the world around us with Your eyes. May we learn to be sensitive to Your leading and to be brave and strong enough to act upon it. Fill us, use us. Amen.
Nov 27th, 2022, Sun, 8:24 pm
