Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus
I remember three sisters who attended my primary school growing up. Sadly they were victims of horrendous bullying and I shudder to think of the long term psychological scars. I don’t know the exact trigger for the bullying, but I guess they came from a poorer family and spoke and dressed differently.
The youngest sister, Mary, was in my class. On one occasion, I remember the mother of the girls having an angry outburst at a school BBQ and running across the playground. Many of the children and their parents were pointing and laughing, some exclaiming, “She isn’t even wearing a bra!”
I recall feeling bewildered, and thinking “I am not perfect, will they laugh at me too?”
My mum asked me once, “You don’t pick on Mary, do you?” She went on to tell me never to pick on Mary, to always include her, and to make sure I hold her hand when we do folk dancing at school. I remember holding Mary’s hand and thinking it was so dry and papery, but my mum’s words came back to me.
One evening we had a folk dancing night, where various schools combined to perform for one another. My mum asked whether Mary had someone to take her and concluded, “We will take Mary.” Squished in the back seat together, I thought that Mary smelled a little strange. But again, my mum’s words came back to me.
On another occasion, Mary had a birthday party. My dad walked my sister and I to Mary’s house, came inside with us, and had a chat with Mary’ father. Other children were arriving, but some started to cry and their parents took them home. My dad said he would return to collect us in a little while. Being shy in public I did as I was told, though I was scared of the big dogs in their house.
When my dad came back he spent some more time talking with Mary’s parents. Sometime later a rumour started – apparently Mary’s father had been fired from his job at the local pizza shop because he smelled bad. I remember my dad shaking his head and saying, “He works full time at the pizza shop to support his whole family because the mother has a mental illness”.
Through their words and actions my parents taught me about kindness, inclusiveness and not being judgemental. And though I did not grow up in a Christian home, when I reflect on these memories I see the spirit of Christ.
Christ himself was not elite in status or appearance; Isaiah foretold that Jesus would have “no majesty or beauty to attract us to him, and nothing in his appearance that we should desire him.” Further, he would be “despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering” (Isaiah 52:2-3).
In choosing the second king of Israel, God told Samuel, “People look at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart” (1Samuel 16:7). There are multiple accounts of Jesus dining with people of ‘lowly’ status in the gospels and in Psalm 138:6 we read that “Though the Lord be high, yet has he respect for the lowly; but the proud he knows from a distance.”
The truth is, when I spend time with Jesus, talking to Him and reading His word, my disposition towards others softens. He softens my heart for people. So turn your eyes upon Jesus…
