What do you see?
Ever play peek-a-boo? I think it’s funny that a baby can actually think you disappear when you hide your face, and the baby thinks it is hilarious when you re-appear magically from out of nowhere. This game can be played over, and over, and over again and it remains hilarious. Peek-a-boo, I see you!
Acts 3 starts with the story of the healing of the lame man. Verses 3 and 4 almost sound like a game of peek-a-boo. The lame man sees Peter and John and they see the lame man. They tell the lame man to look at them and he does and then they fix their eyes on him. There is a lot of looking and seeing in a few sentences. Peek-a-boo, I see you.
All of this makes me wonder, do we really see the people around us? People can be easily overlooked. In the hustle and bustle of life people disappear. We walk right past people without seeing who they really are – or we don’t see them at all. The clerk at the store, the server at the restaurant, the attendant at the gas station, the woman behind the desk, the man walking the dog, the neighbor pulling in the garage. Peek-a-boo, do I see you?
One of the invitations of missional communities is that we start to see our neighbors. We pay attention. We slow down. We notice. And when we see people we are nice to them. We are kind. We are curious. We are generous. We engage. We care. To care for people, we need to see them. Peek-a-boo, I really see you.
We believe that God wants every man, woman, and child in our community to have a daily encounter with Jesus in word and in deed. This daily encounter comes through us and the first step toward this encounter is that we actually see people.
Peek-a-boo! I see you!
Pastor Kent