Open the door, look out, say hello to the first person you see.

Sometimes I find myself caught in the web of our ME culture in America.  I don't necessarily want to be, I just am despite my best efforts.  When I read about Jesus though, I see a very different picture.

"Jesus traveled through all the towns and villages of that area, teaching in the synagogues and announcing the Good News about the Kingdom. And he healed every kind of disease and illness.When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them because they were confused and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd." (Matthew 9:35-36 NLT)

Jesus saw people, not just the surface but to a person's thoughts and heart.  So when Jesus saw the crowd, he saw them through and through.

Most of us don't. Not really.

What would it take for us to see people today? Who do I need to look out and say hi to? Who will I encounter and can I remember to really look?

The imagery in John Donne's Meditation XVII echos these thoughts, although I'll admit I readily change the pronouns as needed. Reach out today - don't be an island!

"No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main. If a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe is the less, as well as if a promontory were, as well as if a manor of thy friend's or of thine own were: any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind, and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee."

John Donne (Meditation XVII) en.wikisource.org/wiki/Meditation_XVII