Good afternoon, friends. One of the very significant things that Jesus did for us was to question and shuffle our carefully constructed value system – especially when it came to the relative value he put on people. You never saw him heaping praise and attention on the people the culture adored. In fact, his short ministry was almost entirely spent paying close attention to the folks everyone else was ignoring.
When even his disciples didn’t want to be bothered with the children, Jesus took them in his arms and told the disciples to NEVER HINDER THE CHILDREN FROM COMING TO HIM. It was the same way with the outcast, the leper, the foreigner, or a penniless beggar.
I wonder why that was? Obviously, he understood that each person was loved by God and therefore of equal value to each and every other person. But I also believe that Jesus understood that every person (and all of nature) holds within it the capacity to reveal something important about the Creator.
Look into the eyes of your tiny grandchild and see if there isn’t something of God written in their trusting eyes. And what about the homeless person whom everyone seems to ignore? What do you see there? Or the foreigner or the disabled?
To the children the disciples shooed away, Jesus said: “Whoever welcomes one of these little children in my name welcomes me.” Ponder that today as you shop, go to your place of business, or visit with your neighbor. Look at that other person with a child-like sense of wonder and see what you see.
LET’S PRAY: God, you seem to love each one of us without noticing our many blemishes. Give us a bit of that grace and wonder, I ask in Jesus’ name. Amen
