Have you overlooked these people?

 There are some people hard to overlook.  There’s the lady wearing the big hat with a potted plant on it.  There’s the older man with the bushy white hair and plaid sports coat.  There’s the six year old that stands six-foot-three.  There are also those people that it may be easy to overlook.  We don’t mean to or want to, but seem to.  Sometimes, we overlook them because they keep to themselves and don’t really want to be seen.  Others, however, are so unassuming that they are easy to miss.  There are instances, unfortunately, where we are too caught up in ourselves or our circle of friends so that we fail for lack of trying.

Consider the following “types” or categories of people that we cannot afford to overlook:

  • THE POOR.  We have them with us always (Mark 14:7).  The Lord wants us to care about them and care for them (1 Jn. 3:14ff).  They likely lack influence or the ability to do anything for you, but they need your attention.
  • THE NEW CHRISTIAN.  They are highly impressionable and vulnerable.  They start their Christian walk standing at the fringe and need us to “pull them in” the fellowship.  Their faith is fledgling.  Their new life may have them feeling lonely and strange.  Let’s not leave these babes at the baptistery steps to fend for themselves.
  • THE ELDERLY.  Their peer group is shrinking.  They often are widowed.  They grew up in a completely different age, but they have those basic human needs–including companionship.  They still possess a great capacity to love, feel, and share.  Don’t pass by the hoary head.
  • SMALL CHILDREN.  You may have to stoop down or slow down to notice them, but they are there.  You may extend your hand to shake theirs and see them disappear into mom’s skirt or run the other way.  No matter.  Your notice of them will not be unnoticed to them.  They will remember you for remembering them.
  • TEENAGERS.  Outwardly, they look aloof, unconcerned, occupied, or, at times, uninterested in your attention.  Yet, many times, they are looking for identity, struggling with self-confidence, and coping with major life changes.  They need notice. 
  • THE NEWCOMER.  They have uprooted and chanced to leave the familiar for the unfamiliar.  Imagine yourself in their shoes, now in a new setting and faced with fitting into a new family.  That’s not easy!  Practice the golden rule.  Let them in.
  • THE STRANGER.  They are the visitor, often straight off the street.  They are processing their first impression.  You may pause and look at them, not know what to do or say, and keep moving.  Please don’t do that!  Greet them.  Welcome them.  Find out about them.  Tell them about yourself.  Make sure they leave you no longer a stranger.  Overlook them and they may not return…ever.  If they are a non-Christian or wayward Christian, they may find in you a lifeline that changes their eternity.
  • THE STEADY.  The quiet worker, the “always there,” and the disciple behind the scenes may enjoy escaping the “lime light,” but they yearn for and desire the human connection, too.  Let us never take them for granted.  Without them, we would greatly suffer.

We all do it, but let’s not take comfort in it.  Notice even those that we may mistake for the “little people.”  Remember, that God sees no “little people.”  He sees souls.  So must we!

–Neal Pollard

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