What a gift it is to be seen by friends and family!

Too often we are so preoccupied with our media or own thoughts that we do not really LOOK at the people around us.

Matthew 13:13 This is why I speak to them in parables: “Though seeing, they do not see; though hearing, they do not hear or understand. Acts 3:4 Peter looked straight at him, as did John. Then Peter said, “Look at us!”

And SEEING the multitude, Jesus went up into a mountain and when he was set his disciples came unto him and he opened his mouth and taught them saying.

LOOK UP AND BEHOLD the harvest is truly ripe and beg the Lord of the harvest to thrust out workers into the harvest.

Having eyes to SEE why don’t we see?

I remember that when Lois and I would go to a family reunion, we would have to prepare ourselves for what I call “negative seeing”. Her mom would be laughing and talking and would see us and immediately begin to frown. We were prayed up and I still think that there was no legitimate reason that she disliked us. Boy was that painful, BUT NOT AS BAD AS NOT BEING SEEN AT ALL!

When I was a child, I was,(at least in my own mind) almost perfect. Straight A’s and no need for discipline. As a result I was never SEEN! I was convinced, and still struggle with the idea, that when I was nearly perfect I was nothing and if I messed up I was less than nothing.

I used to go to a Southern Baptist prayer breakfast and when the pastors came around shaking hands, they never looked at the person they were shaking hands with! I wanted to yell, “hey you, if you shake my hand LOOK AT ME!”

At church people often seem to LOOK RIGHT THROUGH ME if they don’t know me well, and the ones that do LOOK at me often seem to be “glad handing” me and really any old body would do just as well as an object to shake hands with. Especially people of different ages treat each other as if the other doesn’t exist. There is entirely too much NOT SEEING between  young and old.

Of course I am not just talking about seeing the surface of the person in front of you, but trying to see them as God sees them. To SEE their infinite worth, to SEE why God has put them into your life, to delight in the fact that they are there. To react as, my puppy does, and be thrilled that they are there, to ask myself, “why has God put this person into my life and why do we need each other?”

A good start would be to ACT IN THE FACT that we are children of God and will spend ALL ETERNITY together! Can you imagine getting to Heaven and meeting someone from church whom you saw weekly and having them comment, “I tried to connect with you but you never really LOOKED at me!”

We need to see their dreams and their needs and then jump in and get involved. James 1:27 Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.

I used to go to parties in connection to a hospital I worked at. I am VERY shy and was able to overcome this by focusing on one person at a time and SEEING THEIR shyness and discomfort and trying to set them at rest  and let them know that I did enjoy the gathering more because of their being there.

Let’s give each other the gift of “I SEE YOU” and put real meaning into it!