The Upper Room Daily Devotional of Nashville, Tennessee, United States "Up Close and Personal" for Saturday, 30 September 2017 - Read Luke 7:11-15

The Upper Room Daily Devotional of Nashville, Tennessee, United States "Up Close and Personal" for Saturday, 30 September 2017 - Read Luke 7:11-15
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Luke 7:11 The next day Yeshua, accompanied by his talmidim and a large crowd, went to a town called Na‘im. 12 As he approached the town gate, a dead man was being carried out for burial. His mother was a widow, this had been her only son, and a sizeable crowd from the town was with her. 13 When the Lord saw her, he felt compassion for her and said to her, “Don’t cry.” 14 Then he came close and touched the coffin, and the pallbearers halted. He said, “Young man, I say to you: get up!” 15 The dead man sat up and began to speak, and Yeshua gave him to his mother.[Luke 7:15 1 Kings 17:23]
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When the Lord saw her, he had compassion for her and said to her, “Do not weep.”(Luke 7:13 (NRSV))
“A Mother’s Love” was the caption above a calendar photo of a Ugandan woman as she sat comforting her sick child in a hospital bed. The tenderness in her face as she gently held his hand pulled at my heartstrings.
I had also just read the newsletter of a different charity that told the story of the director of a small school for the deaf in a South American country. For the first time in seven years he had begun the new school year with enough food in the cupboard to feed his pupils for a month. Imagine the struggle he had month after month, year after year, to provide necessities for the children placed in his care.
Personal stories like these make a powerful impact on us because we can empathize with real people. Too often we think about these issues in terms of statistics, which can leave us overwhelmed and untouched by their impersonal presentation. Jesus didn’t focus on statistics; he cared about people as individuals, as we see in his compassion for the grieving widow he met on this occasion.
Christ continues to call us today to have active compassion for the hungry, the suffering, the abandoned — by focusing on one child, one family, one lonely person who needs our love and help right now.
Read more from the author, here.
More from Hazel Thompson
It has been at least 2 years since I wrote this meditation. I had been a widow for about a year. As I look at it again now, how I empathize with the widow in Luke 7. What if one of my sons should die? The compassion of Jesus shines through so brightly to me. He cared deeply about the widow as well as about the death of a young man and acted to bring new life and hope to both of them, raising the son and giving him back to his mother.
The calendar picture also spoke to me of compassion – the compassionate love of that mother for her sick child, and equally the compassionate love of a couple from my Church who repeatedly visited and worked in that hospital over several years, giving medical care, painting and cleaning the wards to bring it up to a good standard and when at home raising funds to finance better facilities. It was largely due to them that that child could receive treatment and recover and grow healthy - given back to his mother.
Similarly, the food in the school cupboard was provided by the giving of other Christians who learned of the need and did what they could to resolve it.
We all have opportunities to show the compassion of Christ. I am Tearfund representative in both of the Churches I belong to. They, and every mission I know of, present their information and appeals through personal stories because this is how we can understand and relate to them as real people and identify with their need. The message reaches our hearts as well as our minds and moves us to do what we can to show Christ’s compassion for them, by praying, by giving and by action. Some may feel a call to go and join those Christian workers, or to work in another capacity to help the needy close at hand. All of us can pass on the story to someone else who can also respond with compassion.
The Author: Hazel V. Thompson (Somerset, England)
Thought for the Day: My giving, prayers, and love can reflect Christ’s love for every person God has made.
Prayer: Dear Lord Jesus, open our hearts wider to show your compassion for suffering people by our loving concern and action. Amen.
Prayer focus: Leaders of charitable organizations
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