“The Time

Of Your Visitation From God”

As he was now approaching the path down from the Mount of Olives, the whole multitude of the disciples began to praise God joyfully with a loud voice for all the deeds of power that they had seen, saying, “Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord! Peace in heaven, and glory in the highest heaven!” Some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to him, “Teacher, order your disciples to stop.” He answered, “I tell you, if these were silent, the stones would shout out.”

As he came near and saw the city, he wept over it, saying, “If you, even you, had only recognized on this day the things that make for peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes. Indeed, the days will come upon you, when your enemies will set up ramparts around you and surround you, and hem you in on every side. They will crush you to the ground, you and your children within you, and they will not leave within you one stone upon another; because you did not recognize the time of your visitation from God.”

Luke 19:37-44

It is easy and safe to get emotional over fictional characters and events as we watch a show or read a book. It is quite another thing to feel deep sadness and grief over real people and their needs. Heartache for the wayward, the suffering, the lost, and the broken tends to mirror the heart and compassion of Jesus, who wept over wayward Jerusalem. When Jeremiah’s people were drifting far from God and His love, he also felt the need to weep. He sensed the burden of God’s heart and the brokenness of his people. He wept, because it was the appropriate response. As we see the condition of the fallen world and the lost people who surround us, ask God to give you and me a heart that mirrors the heart of Christ – a heart that weeps with Him for a lost world and then reaches out to them in love.

True compassion is love in action.

Our Daily Bread – October 4, 2006