By this time they were nearing Emmaus and the end of their journey. Jesus acted as if he were going on, but they begged him, “Stay the night with us, since it is getting late.” So he went home with them. Luke 24: 28-29 (NLT)
I do a Bible Study with twenty and thirty somethings. I absolutely love it because when you read through the Bible with them, they always pull something out of it that you didn’t notice and it becomes relevant for today. Recently, we talked about Luke 24 and this verse became the highlight.
The question that was raised was “What was the culture like back in Jesus day so that you meet someone on the street, start a conversation and then invite them back to your house to spend the night?” And then we started talking about our lives and what our culture was with strangers.
That led to the question “How can we as Christians change how we see and interact with strangers so that we are sharing Jesus love with them?”
We came up with a lot of ideas but the one thing that stood out was where we focus our gaze. So often we are looking at our phones or our next task so that we are so distracted we don’t even notice someone. We talked about our world and how there is so much pain and loneliness. We talked about what it would look like if when we walked down the street or walked into a store if we looked a person in the eyes and asked them (truly wanting to know) how they were doing?
What would the impact be if the people you came across each day felt noticed and valued? How would that change our world? How would it change us?
Something to ponder today as we move through another day; a day which is a gift given to us so we can in turn be a gift to others.