Check Your "Glasses"
 

Check Your "Glasses"

Read Luke 7:36-50

Do not judge others, so that God will not judge you, for God will judge you in the same way you judge others, and he will apply to you the same rules you apply to others.
-Matthew 7:12 (TEV)

MY four-year-old grandson Kevin was proud of his new glasses. They improved his sight so much that he wore them willingly. So I was surprised one day when he took his glasses off and handed them to me, saying, "I don't want to wear these. I can't see anything with them on."

I looked at the lenses and responded, "Of course you can't see very well through these! Your glasses are smeared. We need to clean them."

Simon the Pharisee looked at the woman who anointed Jesus' feet through "glasses" smeared with prejudice and disdain. Instead of seeing her compassion born out of forgiveness, he judged her as sinful and unworthy of concern. How different were the lenses through which Jesus viewed her! Jesus saw her as a child of God, a loving and compassionate woman, a person of great faith.

The way we see others is often distorted by labels and biases. But Christ asks us to look at each one we meet as a child of God. Christ calls us to love rather than to judge.

Wilda Morris (Illinois, USA)
Prayer
Dear Jesus Christ, if we are looking at someone through glasses smeared with prejudice, if we look down on someone for any reason, help us to see and respond to them as you do - with love and care. Amen.

Thought for the Day
Christ calls us to look at others with compassion.

Love this, always thought of rose-coloured glasses, but it is so true, our glasses can be smeared with prejudice and a lot of other things.

Preconceived ideas and an attitude of judgment, can distort our thinking and our perception is off, and we see things as we want to see them, not always the way they truly are.