Faces in the Crowd
The focus was on her. At least, our focus was on her. All the pictures, videos, and cheers were for her. At least, ours were for her.
As I was looking back through the photos we took at Lyssa’s graduation, I couldn’t help but notice something. In the background of my glowing graduate’s pictures were the faces … of people not paying attention … at all. They weren’t even looking! You see, she wasn’t their graduate so they didn’t care. If I weren’t just as guilty during roughly 499 other names, as her mother, I might be offended. That is my child and she is important! What she is doing is significant! Everyone should be paying attention.
Right? Not really. That large basketball arena was full of people watching over 500 other students accomplish the same thing. Oh, maybe they had different cords or a different color stole, but at the end of the day, they were all graduates so why should they watch my child?
Now, imagine that you are watching your child and he truly is the only one accomplishing something. In fact, He is the only One who could accomplish this. And yet, faces in the crowd are disinterested. Some may yawn. Some may try to judge the time of day by the shadows from the sun. In fact, we know some got impatient because they went to Him to hurry Him along in accomplishing His goal, only to find it was finished.
Can you imagine being the Father, watching your only Son dying on the cross and having people be disinterested? And before we let ourselves off the hook, don’t we go through a lot of our days seeming to be disinterested in His sacrifice? When I have an opportunity to serve and I choose to pass, am I indifferent? When I meet someone who needs the gospel and I choose to wait to tell the story, am I casual? When I check my watch during the sermon or plan my afternoon activities instead of focusing on the cross during communion, what message am I sending God?
Yes, I was probably a disinterested face in someone’s graduation picture. But may I never be detached when the One I am watching is the One Who loved me enough to live and die for me.
“Then they sat down and kept watch over him there.” Matthew 27:36
AUTHOR: Amber Tatum
