Seeing People With Compassion

Seeing People With Compassion by Paul Borthwick

The Gospel of Matthew records Jesus encountering a crowd and seeing them as "harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd" (Matthew 9:36). In a similar encounter, the disciples urged Jesus to send the people away (Matthew 14:15). The difference is vision. Jesus saw people through eyes of compassion, while the disciples saw them as an inconvenience. We need to change the way we view people.

My attitude toward a seat mate on an airplane—or my neighbors, my co-workers or the international fellow who serves me at the supermarket—changes when I ask God to help me see them with eyes of compassion. That man sitting next to me is an eternal soul, with an eternal destiny. God also loves the people I encounter throughout the week, but they might not know it. When I see others through the eyes of Jesus, I realize that it's my privilege to be God's 24/7 available witness.

"Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have" (1 Peter 3:15).