Though we may not recognize someone because we\u2019re wearing masks, we can still see eyes looking back at us. Masks seem to have given us a great excuse for NOT making eye contact. In fact, we have the excuse to NOT even notice those whose eyes are downcast because of what they\u2019re going through. It\u2019s become a great excuse to NOT see. The point is we can still make eye contact, and not let a mask keep us from looking into the face of Jesus in those around us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
How easy it can be to fail to recognize the Lord in the crowd because we are deliberately not looking at each other closely enough! Oh, yes, He is amongst us \u2013 in people from all walks of life. Yesterday, a beggar was walking up the line of cars at a red light. The sign he carried merely said \u201cI\u2019m hungry\u201d. I quickly looked in my snack bag (it was going to be a long day of errands that would culminate in my grandson\u2019s baseball game at 6 pm). Who knew I would be sharing my snacks when I made that snack bag? God did. I quickly pulled out two packaged items that I could give him. He replied \u201cThank you so much!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Sometimes we look away so we don\u2019t have to have eye contact. Sometimes we pass someone by without a closer look because we’re too busy. Sometimes we\u2019re too embarrassed to look closer. It might mean we would have to pay attention to them and their concerns. Whatever the situation, when we don’t take time to look each other in the eyes, we miss seeing God’s image right in front of us. Like the downcast disciples on the road to Emmaus and the defeated lame beggar, we miss recognizing Jesus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
That was the key to a miracle for a lame beggar in Acts 3. And it\u2019s also the key to the two disciples on the road to Emmaus I spoke about yesterday. Begging for alms was the lame man’s daily occupation, but Peter looked intently at him and commanded his attention: “Look at us.” With one glance, the beggar expressed his need, as well as his expectation that Peter would help him. But Peter SAW more than the physical need. Because Peter\u2019s look, words, and touch conveyed the healing power of God, the man leapt to his feet, jumping and praising God.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And, those disciples journeying to Emmaus had downcast faces and didn’t even raise their eyes to get a good look at the stranger who joined them. Their hearts began to burn as He unveiled the meaning of Scripture, but not until they sat down for a meal did they LOOK at Him full in the face. As He broke bread and said the blessing, their eyes were finally opened to recognize their risen Master.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This blog is for you AND me. I\u2019m encouraging us all to resolve to look into the eyes of every person we meet. May we pray for the grace to see Christ in each one, and to respond in bold, compassionate faith to what we see. May we be, through our eyes and hearts, the answer to someone\u2019s prayer today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Lord, please open our eyes to see others and to make a difference in their lives. “Amazing grace\u2026.was blind but now I see.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Though we may not recognize someone because we\u2019re wearing masks, we can still see eyes looking back at us. Masks seem to have given us a great excuse for NOT making eye contact. In fact, we have the excuse to NOT even notice those whose eyes are downcast because of what they\u2019re going through. It\u2019s…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":14147,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[20290,20289,20288],"tags":[333,1210,1769,20283,12452,20055,40,20286,20287,18705,20285,7641,20282,20284],"class_list":["post-14146","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-eye-contact","category-masks","category-open-my-eyes","tag-amazing-grace","tag-blog","tag-christian","tag-eye-contact","tag-eyes","tag-face-of-jesus","tag-inspiration","tag-lame-beggar","tag-look-at-us","tag-masks","tag-miracel","tag-open-my-eyes","tag-recognize","tag-snack-bag"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14146","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=14146"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14146\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14148,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14146\/revisions\/14148"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/14147"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=14146"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=14146"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=14146"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}