Photographs in the mind…

The other day, as I drove back from Bucharest to our home in Chisinau, my mind kept taking mental snapshots of the faces I saw. Over the last few months, I have seen thousands of people.

But on this day, I saw them a little differently. I noticed people’s faces…their expressions…their eyes. I saw their hurt…their exhaustion…their hopelessness.

The face of the woman sitting all day on the sidewalk, selling cups of sunflower seeds…

The face of the young boy laying next to his fruit, waiting from early morning until late at night for someone to stop and purchase something…

The face of the old man as he drives his horse and cart to the field for the day…

The face of the young man as he leans on his scythe, exhausted from cutting hay in the hot sun…

It might have started when I prayed a little prayer, “Lord, give me eyes to see the people as You see them…”

We are surrounded by hundreds and thousands of people. But rarely do we look. People in Moldova don’t make eye contact with each other like Americans do. Moldovans tend to walk about, doing their business, rarely smiling and laughing with each other. As one friend put it, “Moldovans don’t smile much because everyone lives in debt, owing someone.”

But I’ve been trying to look at faces lately, trying to see people for who they really are. Individuals…with individual lives, hurts, joys, and pains. Individuals that have not heard about the reality of a living relationship with Christ. Individuals who will be eternally lost unless they hear and respond.

Lord help me not lose sight of the individual in the midst of seeing the masses… The babushka (grandma) sitting outside the apartment is loved by God. The young man kicking the soccer ball needs to know Jesus suffered for him. The child begging for money on the street needs to know she has an eternal gift with her name on it.

Would you look at the faces around you today? Look at your coworkers, your neighbors, and the strangers that cross your path. Look into their eyes. And pray that God allows you to see them as He does…priceless.

Praying for Moldova,

Andy Raatz