I'm Asking for His Eyes

I've been talking a lot about serving and reaching out here on my blog. I am trying to think about ways I can serve and reach out with my own little family and individually. Yesterday, I was shown yet again that the first step to reaching out is seeing the world through God's eyes. 


My husband and I were at the mall with our daughter. We walked in through a favorite store and I vaguely noticed an elderly woman standing in the foyer looking out the door window. We sort of nodded to her and said hello but kept moving.


After an hour or more of shopping in a couple of stores we headed out the same way as we came in. I was vaguely aware of an elderly woman in the foyer, but in my preoccupation I didn't notice that this was the same woman we saw on our way in. Yeah, I can be a little "blind" that way. 


My husband, always being much more sharp to the people around him than I, immediately recognized her and said, "You were here when we came in. Is everything okay?" She explained that she was waiting for her daughter but was worried that her daughter was waiting at the wrong entrance. My husband got a description of the daughter's car and we drove around to the other side and, sure enough, there was a woman waiting in the described car. So, easy as pie, my husband told her where her mother was waiting. We drove back around to view the reunion at a distance. Then, satisfied that mother and daughter had made the connection, we left.


God used that little event to show me that to be used of Him, I need to be ready and alert with my eyes wide opened. I need to be ready to see the people that need help and bold enough to ask what they need. Often I expect to set aside a certain portion of my day and say, "Okay, God, here I am and I've got a couple hours to spare. What do you want me to do?" But often that isn't how God works is it? 


I mean I still think it is great to plan ahead to do things to help others and spread the hope I have found through faith in Jesus. But to be vital I need to be always ready and waiting for God to interrupt my neat and tidy plans.