Eyes of Compassion

The eye is the lamp of the body. If your eyes are healthy, your whole body will be full of light. 

Matthew 6:22

It is said that the eyes are the windows to the soul. I got a taste of this at my brother’s viewing on Friday night.

We were at the funeral home honoring my brother’s life as we mingled together with friends and family from all over. Because of COVID, we all had to wear masks. So as people approached me and my family to offer their condolences, we could only see their eyes.

What I witnessed that night I had never noticed before. The masks allowed a particular focus on the eyes. I could see compassion pouring from certain people’s eyes. Everyone there was compassionate or they wouldn’t have shown up. But there were certain people who just seemed to have compassion pouring out of their eyes.

Many times throughout the Gospels the Bible says that Jesus looked upon individual people and the crowds with compassion. Jesus had eyes that exuded compassion. And certain people at the viewing that night seemed to have the eyes of Jesus, eyes full of empathy.

I shared with one of my uncles that his eyes were ones that were noticeably eyes of compassion. He reminded me that his own family faced hardship and pain when his daughter was in a car accident. And in that moment it dawned on me that many of the people whose eyes beamed with compassion were people whose hearts had been broken, tenderized by tragedy and pain. When their hearts are squeezed by a new tragedy, compassion pours from their eyes.

Jesus, may You make our eyes like Your eyes. Lord, may it be that not only do we see what You see but that when people look into our eyes, they see You.