How to HumanSmakprov

I See You

We get comfortable seeing the filtered version of people. The highlight reel. The version that they want you to see. That’s what makes us feel better. Because seeing people for who they really are doesn’t feel amazing. We don’t know how to handle the awkwardness of their situation or how they are different from us.

But Jesus was not scared of seeing people. He loved seeing groups of people that others didn’t want to see. Women. The poor. Racial enemies.

For example, in Jesus’s day, men simply didn’t speak to women outside their family. Women had very few rights. But Jesus saw them. He spoke to them (see John 4). He ministered with them (see Luke 24). He equalized their status with men (see Luke 13:16). You would be hard pressed to convince me that Jesus treated men and women differently. He. Saw. Them.

Jesus also humanized the poor: “But when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, and you will be blessed. Although they cannot repay you, you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous” (Luke 14:13–14).

And Jesus healed the racial divide. It’s not a secret that Jews and Samaritans were not fond of each other. In John 4:4, Jesus ends up alone at a local watering hole with a Samaritan woman. They discuss differences between Jewish and Samaritan worship while Jesus simultaneously displays obvious concern for the Samaritan woman.

When I read those sections of scripture I am immediately placed on alert in my own life. How am I treating the poor? How am I treating women? How am I trying to reconcile any racial bias in my own life?

Ephesians tells us: “His purpose was to create in himself one new humanity out of the two, thus making peace, and in one body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross, by which he put to death their hostility” (Ephesians 2:15–16).

We are talking about intentionally seeing past who we think they are and into who they really are. That’s what Jesus did so well. That’s what it means to Be Love, Be Compassion, Be Justice, Be Wonder. That’s what it means to Be Human.

When has someone truly seen you for who you are? What did that tell you about your value in God’s eyes?

We hope this plan encouraged you. Learn more about How To Human by Carlos Whittaker here.