Faces (2)

Acts 6:15 – All who were sitting in the Sanhedrin looked intently at Stephen, and they saw that his face was like the face of an angel.
Acts 4:13 – They took knowledge of them that they had been with Jesus.

I started thinking about faces after watching a couple of TV documentaries earlier this year. One was about an earthquake in Pakistan. A reporter with a camera was walking about among the debris as rescue workers attempted to help the victims trapped under collapsed structures. The reporter's camera suddenly focused on a woman nearby. She was sitting on the ground nursing a young child. Her face was helplessness and despair carved in stone. Her world was in ruins around her, and she was numb. The camera zoomed in making her expression available to the whole world. She suddenly became aware of the look of compassion on the face of the cameraman, and in that instant it was as if she came back to life. Her stony face collapsed as she started to cry. The kindly look of another human being gave her the right and the courage to have her own grief.

Prayer: Dear God, as we begin our day with you, may the fact that we have been with you, show. Help us, by kindly looks and deeds, to be sensitive to needs (often hidden) of people all around us. In your mercy, hear us as we bring our prayers to you on their behalf. Amen.