Have you seen Jesus?

Taking him, [little child], in his arms, he said to them, "Whoever welcomes one of theses little children in my name welcomes me; and whoever welcomes me does not welcome me but the one who sent me." -Mark 9:36-37

As I'm trying to find Jesus, I'm searching for him. I asked how could I find him? How could I reconnect with him? How could I make this something really real and not just a thing I do in the morning?


Day before, God lead me to 1 John where he talked about how we know what God is that he lays down his life for his friends. How to Love God is to obey his commands, and his command is to "Love each other as I have loved you." Jn 15:14. So I was thinking about that, and then eventually forgot and just let it pass by, but God doesn't forget things very easily. He's more of the stick to it kinda guys. So he further developed this idea in my head so I wouldn't forget.


IF we want to see His heart on campus, we have to see Jesus on campus.
Yeah, so at first I went to ego-centric and thought, yeah, people should see us as Jesus on campus, then they could meet Jesus and we could be that light. I was sorta pumped, I mean I should be really pumped, but I had had that revelation before, but it wasn't really motivating and seemed like that's not what God was trying to emphasize. As I was reading in Mark 9 it came upon the verse we started with. "Whoever welcomes one of theses little children in my name welcomes me; and whoever welcomes me does not welcome me but the one who sent me."
Then I began to think and realize, (God showed me), that to love others as he loved us is good in theory, but still we wouldn't treat them very well. We don't fully understand it. At least for me, I still would be "trying" but I would be burnt out easily, easily frustrated, lose patience, give up, and it wouldn't be very effective for very long. But what God was saying was, "How would you treat Jesus? If I walked into the room right now, how would you treat me? Would you keep on doing homework and just blow me off? Would you just keep watching TV? Would you go take a shower to try to avoid that awkward moment where you don't really have anything to say?. . . or would you stop and talk to me? would you ask me how my day was? and then listen because I really cared? . . . then why do you do it to your roommate?"
"If you saw me in the library, would you give me the quick heads up 'what's up?' then keep moving on? or would you stop and talk?"
"If I was walking behind you a ways, would you just walk through the door, or would you wait that extra few seconds to hold the door open for me?"
"If you were on the computer checking facebook or email, and I walked up and really needed a computer, would you think to yourself 'I waited my turn, what I'm doing is probably just as important as what You have to do' or would you say, 'here Jesus, you can have this one'?"
"Would you hand me a tray in the cafeteria if I walked up behind you?"
"If I passed you on your way to class, would you wave and say 'hi' and ask how my day was going? or would you just ignore me. Would you go the around about way so we didn't have to pass? Would you look off into the distance so we didn't have to make eye contact? Would you have your ipod turned up so loud that you didn't even notice me? Would you take your ipod out to acknowledge the fact that I'm there, or would you just keep 'rocking out' to music that talks about me instead? Do you even have your head up when we pass so that you could see me?"
"If I got on the elevator, would you break out your cell phone and start texting, read the time, just play around with it until we stopped so that we didn't have to talk?"
"Do you pay attention to me when I'm trying to teach in class? or are you doing your own thing?"


How many times in the day do I blow Jesus off. How many times a day do I pass Jesus and treat him like crap. If it was actually Jesus there is no way that I would do that, if I saw Jesus there, but yet, I do it to others. I do it to his creation. I do it to those made in his image, his likeness. I blow of Jesus all the time on campus, I ignore him most of the days.


"For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me... I tell you the truth, whatever you did not do for one of the the least of these, you did not do for me." - Matt 25:42-45


How do we love others? We love God as he has loved us, and we love others as he has loved us. So in the same sense, it's proof that we are loving God by loving others. We are carrying out his heart. It helps me practically apply what it means to love others, if I could see or imagine them like Jesus then I think I know how I would treat the physical Jesus.


I saw this youtube video, not crazy about the song that goes with it, but look at these pictures. Look at their eyes. Look past their facial expressions and male or female. Look past their setting and surroundings. You can look past their features, look into their eyes and see Jesus looking back at you. You can read so many expressions by someone's eyes. You can see so many thoughts that Jesus portrays by his eyes, and it makes him a little more real.


Thats my prayer for today, well the rest of my life really. Is that I could see people, look them in the eyes and see Jesus looking back at me to remind me just how I should treat them, just how I should love them. Even when they're doing things extremely annoying or stupid, it's almost like Jesus is a character in the play and testing out roles, and when he is just really annoying you can meet him in his eyes and he looks at you saying "ok, now how do you respond? are you still willing to show the love I've given you?" It's looking past the person and their actions and behaviors to see the person inside. Like a play is how I think of it, it's just their character they're portraying, really they are a person inside, and that's who I am going to love.


But when I get to heaven, I'd like to hear:
"For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me. I was in prison and you came to visit me....I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me." -Matt 25:25-36&40


Today. I'm looking for Jesus on campus, I'm praying that I could see him and respond appropriately.