What We’re Looking For

We see what we are looking for.

If we’re looking for justification, we’ll see that.

If we’re looking for someone to blame, we’ll see that.

If we’re looking for a cover up...

If we’re looking for an excuse…

If we’re looking for satisfaction…

If we’re looking for temptation…

We’ll see those things too.

When will we learn to look at each other through the eyes of Christ, whose gaze towards us is compassionate, who sees in our faces the Image of His Own Father—even as twisted and broken and ruined as we have made it?

When will we want to see something different?

Lord, have mercy.

When You ask us what You can do for us, may we ask for our sight to be restored, so that we can see You more fully, and stop seeing each other as objects to be broken, enemies to be fought, tools for our own purposes.

May we stop looking for anything but the glimmer of Your Image in another’s face.

May we call that Image bearer further in to You.

May we look for Jesus…and see the reflection of His worth in the faces of those around us, skin aglow with the creativity of a God who imagined himself clothed in a million different shades of complexion.

The question I need to ask myself, perhaps the question you want to ask yourself is: what are my eyes looking for?

Hope? Or another reason to fear?

Common ground? Or proof of our differences?

A hero? Or a villain?

A friend? Or an enemy?

To learn something more? Or to be proved right?

This doesn’t change reality. There are true enemies. There are broken fissures and painful wounds and sordid ugliness. There are hard and uncomfortable truths we have to live with in this world. That doesn’t mean there is also not beauty hidden in the brokenness.

What are my eyes looking for? What are yours?