The 1955 doubled die obverse wheat penny will easliy sell for $1,000.00 to avid coin collectors, or you can get a value of $.01 for it at any cash register.  This is because the coin is different than regular pennies, though it looks the same at casual glance.  (See where I’m going here?)

When I was a tiny boy, I collected pennies.  I would pour over them, examine them, polish them…  Always wanting to find that one coin that was valuable.  Always hoping to see what nobody else had seen.

Now, not so much.  I will occasionally look at pennies and think, “I wonder if this is valuable”, but that is as far as I go.  There may be a great treasure in my coin jar at home right now, but I will probably never know it as I am not willing to search thoroughly.  

Fine for pennies.  Not so great for humans.

Luke 19 tells the story of Zaccheus.  Jesus comes up to him and calls him by name in verse 5, but verse 7 says, “When the crowd saw it, they all began to grumble, saying, ‘Jesus has gone to be the guest of a man who is a sinner.'”  Would you rather be called by name or called “a man who is a sinner”?  Then who will you choose?

I want to be a man who searches deeply into the souls of my fellow man and comes up with a name.

I want to examine and find the great value in the lives of people around me.

I want to see what Jesus sees in you…  and in me.

When you and I are having a conversation on the street, and you see me begin to smile, you should know that I have just discovered something amazing.  It’s you!  And I am thinking, “If you could see what I see…”

Jesus, I want to see others in the same way that You see me and Zaccheus.  Give me Your eyes today.  Amen.