What’s That Look For?

16 02 2012

When people look at you, looking at them, what do they see?

I have always loved Mark 6:34 in the Bible where it says that Jesus looked out over the crowd of people and had compassion on them. This speaks to me on two levels:

Personally, to know Jesus would look at me this way is a pretty beautiful thing. I often think about Jesus looking at me but usually I picture a look that

urges me along

warns me

is surprised at me

I can easily picture a flicker of disappointment registering in his eyes as He looks at me…

But recorded in Mark, here is the look of compassion. Mark, who is always in a hurry (immediately this, and immediately that) saw something in Jesus and it impacted him enough to write it down. That must have been some look.

I love the look of compassion; to be looked at that way is so comforting. It is a look that says I matter; I will be helped; I am not unnoticed. It is one of the most loving ways a person can be looked at.

Knowing that Jesus looks at me this way, it makes me think about how I look at others. As Jesus looked with compassion — do I?

I can look without seeing anything.

I can look away.

I can stare.

This is really all about what is in my heart and soul, because if the eyes are the window to it, is there enough compassion in there to notice? Is anyone running for a pencil (or Facebook in 2012, I suppose) to write about how I looked at them with remarkable compassion?

I look all the time without getting personally involved with what I am seeing. And to think, there are eyes looking back at me that might not see any compassion at all. This is all at once convicting and motivating because it is only a slight change of heart that will move me.

— Teresa Klassen




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