Seeing God

Do you treat God the way you want to be treated? He deserves to be treated infinitely better, but so many of us barely treat Him the tiniest fraction as well as we do ourselves. Some of us despise Him; some of us despise ourselves, so it's not surprising. The rest of us though....

"... [Blessed] are those who have not seen and yet have believed" (Jn. 20:29b).

An old man and a middle-aged woman sit on a bus stop bench. Both are ragged. The man leans one arm on a small pushcart from the Walmart across town, his head slumped forward, dozing in the mild-fall sun. The woman is talking fervently, but you realize as you approach them on your way further down the sidewalk that it's not the man she's speaking with. She clips her words better than she does her fingernails, but they're just as dirty.

Do you see them? You strain your eyes to stare at the spectacle—the catastrophe—as your head heaves in the other direction in disgust, desperate that no one sees you noticing these two Children of God in plight. Do you see them?

If you did, you'd see God; Jesus in high un-relief.

You walk on by, quick so they don't notice you. So they don't ask you for anything that'll help.

Or, maybe, in a rush, you give them a ten and two-ones from your wallet or that burger meal you're carrying with half the fries already eaten (keep the cola, you already drank from it) and mumble a "God bless" without making eye contact. Don't make eye contact. Pity is contagious.

What are their names?

Will you pray for them?

For how long?

God sees you. He hears you. Return the favor.

It's a start.

~Mt. 25:31-46~