Seeing people through God's eyes
Many of us see people through our earthly eyes that may be covered with bias and prejudices, either learned or taught but there may be a rare treat of seeing people as God sees them.
I have been around people who have assisted me with my vision problem. Starting when I was young, I had people remove some scales from my eyes. I have had the pleasure of breaking bread with others and had heart to heart talks with them. We explored commonalities and understood why we have our differences. We were smart enough and brave enough to accept each other as people that were created by God.
But still, there were other people that we did not recognize and treat like invisible, but that was taught by society. Some were homeless, disabled or mentally ill, that was putting some scales back on the eyes.
I admit that some generalizations were easier to deal with during my EMS days, which did not change the fact that I was still ignoring their humanity and the fact that we had the same Creator.
When my daughter was born with disabilities and all her challenges, I finally saw and started to understand challenges of that population. We need to see them as people. They may have their challenges, but they are still people, who have thoughts, feelings, ideas, and a sense of humor. My daughter removed so many scales from my eyes. I now try to speak out and find ways to assist them.
I was invited to preach in a homeless shelter and feed in another Shelter. I got to sit down and know the men. I listened to their stories of misfortune, drug use, and current challenges. I realized that if I made different decisions, I could have been in the shelters. The men, who became my friends, help me see them and care about them and they took more scales off my eyes.
One time I was working in the hospital and got called to work with a woman in detox, who decided to punch out a window with mesh in it. I originally saw a person that I might have ignored prior. As we were talking, I listened to this woman and there was so much of her life that could have been from my life. As we continued to talk, more scales fell from my eyes, and I had the ability to have God's view of a beautiful woman. I got a chance to see someone in the beauty that God sees all His children. So many of my scales fell off.
God does not see color or differences, but He sees someone that He has made plans for, that He has wonderfully made in His image.
The first thing that we need to do is to see others with the heart and eyes that God wants us to have.
Some people say that we are not to be social workers, but we are to care for, feed, clothe, and visit our brothers and sisters.
We should start to care for someone by acknowledging their existence. Look at them eye to eye and really see them. Listen to their stories. You may find parts of yourself in them or understand more of their thinking or behaviors.
I understand that some people may not want to go into shelters because many of them are unsafe. There are also some people who may be wealthy, but they wish to remain homeless and live on the streets.
We may see people where they are, instead of their prior experience or expertise. There may be someone that you came across who was mentally or spiritually crushed, after a traumatic event. They might not have access or knowledge about where to get help to allow them to heal.
We may have been hurt by one person and then make a grand generalization and then the other person may do the same thing, make a generalization of one group because of one or a few knuckleheads. Is that fair and do you like it when someone does it to you? When we use generalizations and pass that onto others, we may start may problems in the communities.
Should we treat each person with dignity? The person that you see as homeless now may have served honorably as an emergency responder or in the military. You may never find out. They may never divulge the information with you.
We may look at someone with a physical disability and try to figure out what is different about them, but have you asked yourself how the person is looking at you? Are they looking at you, trying to figure out what's up with because of your words, actions, or attitude? What about disabilities that are not visible?
There may be people that are different from you, but that person can be your best friend. If you only talk to people who are just like you that would be like eating a lifetime of nothing but vanilla ice cream.
I have friends of different religions. I do not apologize about my religion, and they should not have to for their beliefs. We accept each other just as we are.
I have friends that go through many different challenges. Why do they have to go through them? Only God knows. Many times, it can be preparing them for some work that He has for them in the future. You have your own challenges that you have to go through and have already gone through.
A disease or condition should not identify a person. The individual may have cancer, but his name is not Cancer Ken and someone with diabetes is not Diabetes Dan. They are just Ken and Dan. Sure you may not know what to say but just treat them like any other person. You may offer to assist the person but don't be hurt if they decide that they can do the task without you.
Through getting to know strangers, I have developed friends from what people tell me are of so many different religions, ethnic backgrounds, regions, races etc.. I do not try to pay attention to those things, I just look at their hearts.
Jesus stated that we are to love our neighbors. He did not say that they are to be like us. Take that as a hint. Open your mind and your heart. If you don't you will be missing a lot and miss out on getting to know some really great people. If you don't love your neighbor, that will be something else that you are not listening to God on.
Smile, say hello to someone you don't know. I saw a shirt that indicated that a stranger is a friend that we have not met yet.
Stay safe,
Didymus McHugh
didymus-mchugh.com
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