Seeing People through the Eyes of Love
Good Morning Friends,
Today we have a board meeting of our local Leadership Foundation that focuses on Immokalee, Florida and particularly the future of its youth…helping them belong, engage and be empowered. And as we contemplate during this season of giving and the many blessing we have received and the amazing stories of how God has touched so many, we also meditate on our gift as a not-for-profit organization and as an association of Leadership Foundations around the world in how we see community through the lens of our faith…through the lens of the local church and the fruit of the spirit joining freely in what God is doing for the poor. Here through the prophecy of Jeremiah, Ezekiel and the words of Mary we begin to see Christmas through the eyes of God, we begin to have hope of having a vision worthy of our Seeing God. Here we begin Seeing People through the Eyes of Love.
Scripture: Woe to the shepherds who destroy and scatter the sheep of my pasture! says the Lord. 2Therefore thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, concerning the shepherds who shepherd my people: It is you who have scattered my flock, and have driven them away, and you have not attended to them. So I will attend to you for your evil doings, says the Lord. 3Then I myself will gather the remnant of my flock out of all the lands where I have driven them, and I will bring them back to their fold, and they shall be fruitful and multiply. 4I will raise up shepherds over them who will shepherd them, and they shall not fear any longer, or be dismayed, nor shall any be missing, says the Lord. 5The days are surely coming, says the Lord, when I will raise up for David a righteous Branch, and he shall reign as king and deal wisely, and shall execute justice and righteousness in the land. 6In his days Judah will be saved and Israel will live in safety. And this is the name by which he will be called: “The Lord is our righteousness.”
Jeremiah 23:1-6 (NRSV)
22Thus says the Lord God: I myself will take a sprig from the lofty top of a cedar; I will set it out. I will break off a tender one from the topmost of its young twigs; I myself will plant it on a high and lofty mountain.23On the mountain height of Israel I will plant it, in order that it may produce boughs and bear fruit, and become a noble cedar. Under it every kind of bird will live; in the shade of its branches will nest winged creatures of every kind. 24All the trees of the field shall know that I am the Lord. I bring low the high tree, I make high the low tree; I dry up the green tree and make the dry tree flourish. I the Lord have spoken; I will accomplish it.
Ezekiel 17:22-24 (NRSV)
And Mary said,
I’m bursting with God-news; I’m dancing the song of my Savior God. God took one good look at me, and look what happened— I’m the most fortunate woman on earth! What God has done for me will never be forgotten, the God whose very name is holy, set apart from all others. His mercy flows in wave after wave on those who are in awe before him. He bared his arm and showed his strength, scattered the bluffing braggarts. He knocked tyrants off their high horses, pulled victims out of the mud. The starving poor sat down to a banquet; the callous rich were left out in the cold. He embraced his chosen child, Israel; he remembered and piled on the mercies, piled them high. It’s exactly what he promised, beginning with Abraham and right up to now.
Luke 1:46-55 (Message)
No one has seen God at any time; if we love one another, God abides in us, and His love is perfected in us.
1 John 4:12 (NRSV)
Message: A prerequisite of anything good is love. It is in the foundation of today’s scripture and has a message for a place like Immokalee whose people have been scattered and thought of as lowly, but in reality, in dignity, need to come home. In the words today we experience a message of hope in the future for a place of poverty being lifted up in a reality of community that honors God. It is a tale of two cities bound together over time in love….made whole. Here the charge of love, the creator of love, and the crown of love is experienced in community. Here we see God’s love proclaimed in the Word, proven in a child’s birth and a man’s death now perfected in those who believe and abide in God as a living body and witness of the Risen Christ at work in the world through his Spirit. Friends the Spirit of love, the person of love, the compelling author of love is at work connecting, changing lives and transforming communities around the world and calls you as Mary was called to be part of something very special.
Pray we rejoice in the vision of the first born of all creation. Pray we realize that it is not so important that we see God but that He is willing to see us with the eyes of forgiveness. Pray we learn the power of vision through the eyes of love. Pray we love others as God has loved us.
Blessings,
John Lawson
Daily Devotionals 