Compassion - Striking Resemblance
by Gary Johnson
As I write this blog, I happen to notice some family pictures here in our living room. In particular, we have wedding pictures of my parents, of us (Leah and I) and of our sons and their wives. I cannot help but notice the striking resemblance of three generations among my dad, my son and myself. Our wedding pictures depict three individuals who must have similar DNA in that we have blond hair and blue eyes. I guess the old saying is true: “the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.” There is little doubt that I look like my dad, my son looks like me – and his grandfather. We are the proverbial “chip off the old block.”
Come to think of it, all of us look like our Father, who said, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness…” (Genesis 1:26). Each of us has been made in the image of God, and we bear His likeness, His spiritual DNA. One of our Father’s remarkable traits is His compassion. If we do a word search in a concordance of the word “compassion” it appears literally dozens of times throughout Scripture, and most often in reference to God.
For example, in my older version of the NIV, it states in Lamentations 3:22-23, “Because of your great compassion, we are not consumed. Your mercies never fail. They are new every morning. Great is your faithfulness.” Because of our Father’s indescribable compassion, we are given another day of life, and that day of life begins with mercies that we did not see the day before. Imagine waking up day after day and experiencing actual mercies, acts of kindness and compassion from God that we had never received in times past. That literally happens for each and every one of us, each and every day we wake up.
Now think with me. What if we – children of God who have been made in His image – offered that same gift of compassion and mercy to others in our lives each and every day? Would our corner of the world where we live be different from others? Would our homes, workplaces, community, even the church of which we are a part – be all the better, more enjoyable?
We live in a broken world where conflict abounds. We hear of escalating conflict between Russia and the West, between China and Taiwan, and between Republicans and Democrats. We live in a culture that quickly jumps to judgment of one another. So then, what if we lived by the golden rule of “do to others as you would have them do to you” (Matthew 7:12)? Because of God’s great compassion, we experience new mercies every morning. Since we enjoy being treated in that manner, should we not also treat others the same? After all, we have been made in His image.
In Luke 10:25-37, Jesus said that the greatest commandment is to love God with all of one’s heart, mind, soul, and strength; and the second greatest commandment is to love our neighbor as we love ourselves. When He said this, someone in the crowd then asked Him, “And who is my neighbor?” Jesus then told the parable of the Good Samaritan, a man who showed uncommon compassion towards a stranger. At the end of His teaching, Jesus told the crowd, “Go and do likewise.” In other words, go and show uncommon compassion to those around us – and not just to those who we know and love, but to even those we meet for the very first time.
When people are in our home and they see the display of our family pictures, we often hear someone comment about the striking resemblance among my dad, my son, and I. I can think of no greater joy and satisfaction than for someone to look at you or me and to say, “What a striking resemblance. It is so easy to see Jesus in you.” Showing compassion to others has a way of doing that.
