REFOCUS
Begin with prayer saying, “Speak Lord, for your servant is listening.”
READ
Philippians 3:1
Brothers, join in imitating me and keep your eyes on those who walk according to the example you have in us.
Philippians 4:9
What you have learned and received and heard and seen in me—practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you.
1 Corinthians 11:1
Be imitators of me, as I am of Christ.
John 13: 14-15, 34
If I then, the Lord and the Teacher, washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. For I gave you an example that you also should do as I did to you… A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another.
REFLECT
Freckles Made Beautiful
A young boy, his face sprinkled with freckles, was excited to visit the county fair with his grandmother. They wandered through rides and games and various displays when they came upon a long line of children. As they approached, the boy asked a girl at the end of the line what they were waiting for.
“It’s a face painter,” she said, “He’s painting designs on all the kids’ faces.”
Excitedly, the boy turned to his gramma to ask if he could get his face painted. Before he could utter a word, the little girl continued, “But you might as well go on,” she said. “I don’t think he could even find space to paint on that spotted face of yours.”
As the embarrassed child turned away, the observant grandmother knelt to comfort him.
“I love your freckles. When I was a little girl, I always wanted freckles,” she said, while wiping his tears and tracing her finger across the boy’s cheek. “Freckles are beautiful!”
“Really?” the boy asked.
“Of course,” said the grandmother. “In fact, I don’t know of anything more beautiful.”
Sometime later, the boy tugged on the elderly woman’s hand.
“Granma,” he said. “I know something better than freckles.”
The wise woman chose to play along.
“I can’t imagine,” she said. “What could be prettier than freckles?”
Her grandson peered intensely into his grandmothers’ eyes and then softly whispered, “Wrinkles, Gramma. Wrinkles are beautiful.”
This story is one of empathy, specifically of empathy being demonstrated and learned. Since empathy has been discovered to be one of the primary skills needed to have a happy and well-balanced life, social scientists have studied it intently. Among the things they find is that it is primarily a learned skill rather than an inborn trait.
But if our empathy quotient is low, we need not run to the self-help section of the bookstore to find out how to practice it. The research tells us that we will have much better success learning empathy by surrounding ourselves with people who practice it. The studies show that we learn empathy best when we observe people who practice it and emulate their actions.
In our story, the Grandmother’s example paved the way for her grandson to show kindness. It modeled speech that lifted another up. And it revealed what researchers have found: that the most powerful teachers of empathy often are in our own families.
If our empathy quotient is low, the words of Jesus and Paul show us a way to increase it. Both were intentional in drawing people into community. Both encouraged disciples to imitate them. The early church would call this God’s family, complete with brothers and sisters, fathers and mothers.
Perhaps like no other place, the family of God gives us the opportunity to strengthen our capacity for empathy. Through communities of faith, we can see compassion in practice. It also gives us the opportunity to practice compassion as we are bound into relationship with those who require it.
It allows us to receive it when we are in need. In both giving and receiving, we follow Jesus. He is the ultimate model of compassion.
RESPOND
Questions to Consider
- Who is your “family?” That is, who can you count on to model the ability to love more deeply, to be more compassionate?
- Who is counting on your compassion?
Prayer
Almighty Father,
You have given the gift of the new birth to us. Thank you for Jesus, the model of true compassion. Thank you for those You have placed in our life that teach us to care for others. Teach us that the way of the cross is the way to life. Amen.
Blessings,
Rev. James R. Needham, PhD, MDiv