Think of People as Your Family
Day 13
Buechner continues to reflect on the connection between seeing and loving.
“Imagine yourself in a big city in a crowd of people. What it would be like to see all the people in the crowd like Jesus does—an anonymous crowd with old ones and young ones, fat ones and thin ones, attractive ones and ugly ones—think what it would be like to love them. If our faith is true, if there is a God, and if God loves, he loves each one of those. Try to see them as loved. And then try to see them, these faces, as loved by you. What would it be like to love these people, to love these faces—the lovable faces, the kind faces, gentle, compassionate faces? That’s not so hard. But there are lots of other faces—disagreeable faces, frightening faces, frightened faces, cruel faces, closed faces. I find if you think of them as your family, it helps. You can do it, and it’s an exercise worth trying. What it would be like to love each one of these faces, to see the face and to love the face for what lies there, to meet the face that is finally—as that minister said in answer to C. S. Lewis’s question ‘What did Hitler look like?”—“Like Christ.’”
Frederick Buechner, The Remarkable Ordinary: How to Stop, Look, and Listen to Life, Grand Rapids: Zondervan, pp42-43.
To help you reflect…
Take some time to follow Buechner’s invitation and imagine yourself in a big city in a crowd of people. Imagine seeing all these people as loved. Welcome images of “disagreeable faces, frightening faces, frightened faces, cruel faces, closed faces” and see if you can love them too. Play with thinking of them as your family. Imagine seeing Christ even in these faces.
And/or…
Next time you are in a crowded space, imagine that all the people around you are your family. What is that like for you? What is the challenge? Where is the invitation?
