Job 34:21 “God’s eyes are on human ways, and He sees all their steps.” CEV
My hotel room was frigid and no amount of jiggling the thermostat changed it. So, throwing on every piece of clothing possible, I jumped under the bed covers. Somewhere around midnight, all that thermostat jiggling paid off, the heat came on, and I began peeling off layers.
The next morning, I quickly gathered up my discarded clothing, and in typical clothes-dryer-mystery fashion, discovered a sock missing. Not wanting to miss my shuttle, I did a hasty but unproductive survey of the floor. I could only hope housekeeping would discover my dirty sock before the next room guests did!
Heading out the door, my toe brushed against something. Right there on the floor was my sock: blended into the busyness of the carpet pattern and totally invisible yet in plain sight.
As I rode to the airport, I contemplated my Christian walk. How many of God’s precious children, like my sock, are lost, needing to be found, but due to the busyness of my life, they remain invisible to me yet in plain sight?
Perhaps our failure to notice others is due to our failure to have God’s view of mankind. If we consider the price-tag God paid for us, would we see more clearly the amount of love God has for us? Indeed, no gift has ever come with such great sacrifice. God loves deeply enough to gift a life. And His Son loves deeply enough to surrender that unfathomable gift.
With a God-view of love, Christ embraced society’s invisible community. Yes, Jesus, the Son of the Creator of the World, saw the brokenhearted, the sick, the poor, the wayward, and the lost.
Like that obscure sock, it would have been so very easy for Jesus to pass right by Zacchaeus in the tree, camouflaged by leaves and hidden from sight. But Jesus acknowledged this small, lost man and in doing so, won his heart.
No respectable Jew of his day would have faulted Jesus had he ignored the Samaritan woman at the well. She was part of the marginal society. A woman of her reputation could tarnish those in her company, but Jesus felt her isolation and treated her as a beloved child of God.
Due to the busyness of Christ’s schedule, the woman with an issue of blood could have easily been bypassed. But, after healing a paralyzed man, debating with lawyers, eating with the tax collectors and sinners, speaking parables to John’s disciples, casting out demons, and raising a dead girl, Jesus took the time to stop, heal, and validate this outcast woman.
Jesus’ heart was set on redeeming the lost, the hidden, and the obscure. Sisters, we must remember, we, too, are among that group requiring the redemption only Jesus can offer.
Despite the busyness of our lives, let us today intentionally seek the precious souls God places directly in our path. May they never, just like that lost sock, become invisible to us yet in plain sight.
Father God, open our eyes to the needs of your children. May no soul go unnoticed.
Blessings,
Rita Cochrane