Passion: People (Part 1)

One of my all-time favorite songs is What Now by Steven Curtis Chapman. The first line of the song says, “I saw the face of Jesus in a little orphan girl. She was standing in the corner on the other side of the world.” The tears well up in my eyes and my heart burns every time I hear those words because I remember the first time I saw my two little Colombian Goddaughters, Heidy and Ginary. The compassion and love that flooded my soul as I spent a few hours with them was overwhelming. I wept like a child when I had to leave them. God wanted me to see them, to see their life, and to see their “home” because He knew me and He knew the response that seeing them would elicit from me. He wanted me to know what He felt for them and to spend the rest of my life loving them and helping them by every means at my disposal. Seeing made all the difference.

I’m enjoying a wonderful book right now entitled Love Walked Among Us by Paul E. Miller. (who is the author of another of my most favorite books A Praying Life) In Love Walked Among Us, Miller looks closely at the life of Jesus and how He loved and draws out wonderful principles by which we can imitate our sweet Savior. He starts with “love shows compassion” and talks about how Jesus had compassion on the widow of Nain and raised her only son from the dead. The thing that really intrigued me was that Miller points out that first Jesus saw her and then His heart went out to her in compassion. It prompted me to do a little study of the gospels and look at every time the Lord looked at someone or taught about looking at someone and having compassion. This is what I found.

Matt. 9:36 Seeing the people, He felt compassion for them, because they were distressed and dispirited like sheep without a shepherd.

Matt. 14:14 When He went ashore, He saw a large crowd, and felt compassion for them and healed their sick.

Matt. 25:37 “Then the righteous will answer Him, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry, and feed You, or thirsty, and give You something to drink? 38 ‘And when did we see You a stranger, and invite You in, or naked, and clothe You? 39 ‘When did we see You sick, or in prison, and come to You?’

Mark 5:32, 34 And He looked around to see the woman who had done this… And He said to her, “Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace and be healed of your affliction.”

Mark 10:14 But when Jesus saw this, He was indignant and said to them, “Permit the children to come to Me; do not hinder them; for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these.

Mark 10:21 Looking at him, Jesus felt a love for him and said to him, “One thing you lack: go and sell all you possess and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me.”

Luke 7:13 When the Lord saw her, He felt compassion for her, and said to her, “Do not weep.”

Luke 19:5 When Jesus came to the place, He looked up and said to him, “Zaccheus, hurry and come down, for today I must stay at your house.”

Luke 10:33 “But a Samaritan, who was on a journey, came upon him; and when he saw him, he felt compassion,

Luke 13:12 When Jesus saw her, He called her over and said to her, “Woman, you are freed from your sickness.”

Luke 15:20 “So he got up and came to his father. But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and felt compassion for him, and ran and embraced him and kissed him.

Luke 17:14 When He saw them, He said to them, “Go and show yourselves to the priests.” And as they were going, they were cleansed.

Luke 19:41 When He approached Jerusalem, He saw the city and wept over it,

Luke 21:2 And He saw a poor widow putting in two small copper coins. 3 And He said, “Truly I say to you, this poor widow put in more than all of them;

John 4:35 “Do you not say, ‘There are yet four months, and then comes the harvest’? Behold, I say to you, lift up your eyes and look on the fields, that they are white for harvest.

John 5:6 When Jesus saw him lying there, and knew that he had already been a long time in that condition, He *said to him, “Do you wish to get well?”

John 6:5 Therefore Jesus, lifting up His eyes and seeing that a large crowd was coming to Him, *said to Philip, “Where are we to buy bread, so that these may eat?”

John 9:1 As He passed by, He saw a man blind from birth.

John 11:33, 35 When Jesus therefore saw her weeping, and the Jews who came with her also weeping, He was deeply moved in spirit and was troubled… Jesus wept.

John 19:26 When Jesus then saw His mother, and the disciple whom He loved standing nearby, He *said to His mother, “Woman, behold, your son!”

Lord, help us to see like Jesus!