By Niveditha Seenivasan
I was on my way to work on the public bus last week, and i saw something that made my day. I saw two women who were complete strangers, help out another girl who was having some trouble. They did not know each other and did not exchange even one word throughout, just smiles. As a bystander, it was refreshing to watch and as I got off the bus, I could only think of how wonderful humans could be!
Now this seems to be quite a contrast to all the news we hear about how cantankerous people around us are. What with all the thefts, and agitations and murders and attacks, we are habituated to see and discuss the worst in people. Matthew 15:18 says “…But what comes out of the mouth proceeds from the heart, and this defiles a person”. This means that what we see and talk about is a reflection of the contents of our own hearts. This is an important area of introspection. We need to be careful about what we fill ourselves with. We have a choice.
Something else that is absolutely amazing about this is that while we see only the superficial and the worst in people the Lord sees the best in us. He looks straight at our hearts. “For the Lord sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart.” 1 Samuel 16:7
My very wise mentor once told me, 'We need to look at people not as they are now, but as a work in progress. See the potential in them and what God is making them to be” which translates to, 'Look at people through the eyes of the Lord'
This is not an easy thing to follow. But if we do, how wonderful our transient life here on earth would be!