SEEING DIFFERENTLY

INTRODUCTION

One of  the  things that Jesus was always trying to do was to get people to see  differently—better to see better.

People see differently.

People see differently.

That’s one of the great lessons in life to learn is that we might be looking at the same thing, but people see differently.

CANDLE

Look at a lit candle.

What do you see?

Do you see the wax or do you see the fire?

Do you see danger?  If it’s not watched it could burn a house down.

Do you see memories? Do you see the candle you lit in church on the day of your wedding?

Do you see the candle in the window  that you loved one lit every night - so you knew you were coming home to love?

People see differently.

FLOWER

Look at a flower.

Do you see the flowers your family brought to celebrate your first part in a play?

Do you remember the flowers people brought for your mom’s funeral or when she was sick in the hospital?

Does it remind you of the moment you saw a painting by Georgia O’Keefe or a painting by Manet.

People see differently.

TODAY’S GOSPEL

In today’s gospel the people saw Jesus mom and his brothers. That’s what they were seeing. But Jesus saw differently. He said, “You are my brothers and my sisters and my mom.”

He wants us to see everyone as family. You are my brother or my sister or my mom. You and you and you. And once we see each other that way it makes quite a difference.

People see differently.

CONTACT LENSE STORY

I once saw an interesting story in the newspaper about how people see differently.

A girl lost her contact lens. She went up to her dad and said that he had to take her to the optician tomorrow. He said, “We were just there last month.” She replied, “Dad, I lost one of my contact lens and I have a big date tomorrow night.”

He said, “Where did you lose it?”

She responded, “Well, if I knew where I lost it, I wouldn’t be telling you that I lost it.”

“Oh, that’s right. Well, where do you think you lost it?”

“Probably my room. But I just spent an hour looking for it.”

Her dad said, “Well, let me look.”

She said, “Dad, you’re not going to find it. I just looked everywhere—for an hour.”

Well he went up to her room and looked. Five minutes later he comes down and she’s sitting there arms folded. “Here’s your lens.”

“How did you find it so fast?” she asked.

“Well, you were looking for a contact lens. I was looking for a hundred dollar bill.”

CONCLUSION

People see differently.

Till we learn that, we’ll never learn to see eye to eye.

Till we learn that, we’ll never learn that we are all brothers and sisters.