TODAY IS…

a spectacular day to look through the eyes of Jesus.

“When He saw the crowds, He had compassion on them because they were confused and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.”  Matthew 9:36 NLT

To look through the eyes of Jesus, one needs to possess compassion that is borne of humility.

Of all the characteristics that enabled Jesus to be who He was, live like He lived, and care for humanity to the degree that He did, the humility with which He gazed out at the world allowed Him to see the needs of each person He looked at. His humility enabled Him to care about other people and it made Him aware that not all pain was visible to the naked eye.

Christ knew that a lot of what we see in a person in a purely physical sense is a result of pain that they have suffered and sins that they have committed and for which they carry the guilt. When people are mistreated as children, when they are neglected instead of being nurtured, when they are hit and never hugged, when they are taught to fight rather than make peace – when any, or all, of these and other negative things occur, what we see as a result is an angry, hateful, arrogant, abusive, uncaring and insensitive adult.

When we look upon these people with the compassionate eyes of Christ, rather than ignore and avoid them, we will try to reach out to them, and into them, by demonstrating our understanding of who Jesus Christ was and what He expects of us. We will try to show people who find it easy to hate that Christ’s humility only allowed Him to see people with love, no matter how badly they mistreated Him or others.

To look at people through the eyes of Christ is to be concerned with each and every one of them. It is to humbly place their needs before our own, because in doing so we know we are demonstrating our understanding of what it means to see things the way that Christ did.

When we look at things through the eyes of Christ our humility will make us do that which is right, and not that which is expected or expedient. We will seek to make another person’s life better rather than trying to make our own easier.

When we view the world through the eyes of Christ, we will see a place filled with God’s children who, like a flock of sheep with no shepherd, are lost and confused and we will use the compassion that arises from our humility to look for ways to calm them and help them find their way safely home.

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Taken from “TODAY IS….A Gift From God”, (C) 2013 Tony Casson