Do You See ...?

"Jesus turned to the woman and said to Simon, 'Do you see this woman? ..." Luke 7:44a (CEB)

Most folks who know me know that this experience with Jesus is one of my favorites.  A Pharisee has invited Jesus to his own home for dinner (with a hidden agenda not named in scripture, I'm certain).  Surrounded by his friends and co-workers at this dinner party, he's not much of a host.  Perhaps they're all accustomed to his cutting of corners in the hospitality department, but Jesus takes note of it.  Not because the world would stop spinning just because Simon didn't provide a basin for Jesus to wash his feet or didn't greet him with a kiss.  The hidden agenda was held, it seems, against most everybody Simon determined to be less than him. 

A woman whose has been rescued by Jesus' love and grace makes her way into the party to love Jesus with her very best.  She washes his feet with her tears, dries them with her hair, anoints him with what could very well be the key to her livelihood ... what she used to make herself attractive to her business partners, shall we say, she now lavished on Jesus only for the sake of love.  It's Jesus' question that slays me ... do you see this woman?  Really?!?  She's probably the only one in the room, she's got the ugly girl-cry going on, and she's broken open an entire box of perfume.  Yet, they didn't see her.

They didn't see her love for Jesus, they didn't see her bent toward hospitality when it wasn't even her turf, and they didn't see who she was becoming ... because they thought they already knew her and had judged her accordingly.

Hmmm.

Help me see your children, Lord, for who and whose they really are.  We're all wrestling with something and somedays on the losing side of it.  Those who stand on corners with cardboard signs, those who show up for the second time this week at a food pantry, those who are angry and defensive at every system that robs them of themselves and makes them a number or a category ... Thank you, Lord Jesus, for seeing me when others can't or won't.
I've heard it said that what others think of me is not my business.  But, what I think of others is nobody's business BUT mine.  Give me eyes that see like you see and a heart full of love for others, all others. A heart after your own.  Deeper still, help me understand the full measure of love you hold for me, God, and be willing to share that with others no matter what, no strings attached.  Let it be so.