“Anyone who has two shirts should share with the one who has none, and anyone who has food should do the same.”
Luke 3:11 NIV

Human hurt is not easy on the eyes. Yet there is something fundamentally good about taking time to see a person.

Simon the Pharisee once disdained Jesus’ kindness toward a woman of questionable character. character. So, Jesus tested him: “Do you see this woman?” (Luke 7:44, emphasis mine).

Simon didn’t. He saw a hussy, a streetwalker, a scamp.

What do we see when we see . . .
• the figures beneath the overpass, encircling the fire in a fifty-five-gallon drum?
• the news clips of children in refugee camps?
• the reports of grueling poverty at home and abroad?

“When [Jesus] saw the multitudes, He was moved with compassion for them” (Matthew 9:36).

This word compassion is one of the oddest in Scripture. The New Testament Greek lexicon says this word means “to be moved as to one’s bowel . . . (for the bowels were thought to be the seat of love and pity).” Compassion, then, is a movement deep within—a kick in the gut.

Perhaps that is why we turn away. Why look suffering in the face if we can’t make a difference? Yet what if by seeing, we were moved to compassion? Moved not just to see, but to do.

Lucado, Max (2015-12-20T22:58:59). God Is With You Every Day . Thomas Nelson. Kindle Edition.