Ordinary Time 
Pause
Our eyes can fool us. We are each captive to our own way of seeing things, struggling to see the world from any perspective but our own.
Sometimes we look away, afraid of what we might see or afraid of what it might mean to see things differently than we usually do.
Wisdom shines a light on what we look at, and God is the source of that illumination. Be prepared now to see things more clearly.
Listen
“But to what will I compare this generation? It is like children sitting in the marketplaces and calling to one another, ‘We played the flute for you, and you did not dance; we wailed, and you did not mourn.’ For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, ‘He has a demon’; the Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, ‘Look, a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!’ Yet wisdom is vindicated by her deeds.'”
Matthew 11:16–19
Think
“Wise to See.” That’s the theme for this week, but the people in today’s text aren’t wise in their seeing at all. Jesus likens them to children, asking for one thing and getting another. They see someone playing the flute and they do not dance, witness them wailing and do not mourn. They ignore those they should have responded to. They observe John the Baptist and say he has a demon. They watch Jesus and declare him a glutton and a drunkard. They pronounce judgment on the actions of others without commenting on what is really modeled in their lives.
Even though the people Jesus is talking about didn’t respond and react the way they should have, both John and Jesus continue to do what God has called them to do. Through their deeds, they live out the story of God for all who want to see and hear. People’s opinions of John and Jesus don’t change the way they live their lives, a reminder that we all have a call to live out our faith in word and deed.
Ruth Perkins Lee
Pray
God, open my eyes to see those around me who need me. Open my mouth to speak only those things that honor you and build others up. Amen.
Go
May you have new eyes to see this very day a world that is not exactly all that you thought.
May God give you new wisdom to understand the things that God would have you to know.
And may all this result in a new humility that makes you a more effective witness to God’s mysterious works.
