see with your heart, what your eyes cannot

this sentence crept into my heart, just now
i couldn't begin to know why

...see with your heart, what your eyes cannot...

i just have an image of a generic person. she is a woman. she is attractive, dressed well, and her exterior suggests life is good, or at least, life if okay. what i cannot see are the scars from the wounds of her past...maybe even, her yesterday. what if she was abused by her parents? what if her mom never really hugged her? what if her father valued his success more than her, and she fell into the arms of every accpeting man, her whole life....only to be disappointed? what if she cannot have children? what if she is married to an addict? what if she has children, but they are not living up to her expectations? what if she is lonely?

what if she is offensive when she speaks? what if she demeans women who are less attractive, or whose clothes may not be as fine? what if she gossips about everyone, every chance she gets? what if she is working really hard to mask her exterior so we cannot see her interior?

people just offend me sometimes. but i know enough to know that there is something going on, on the inside, that would explain everything....but i may never be privvy to the details, or even the snapshot. i just know that with my heart, i need to be willing to see the brokenness, the victim, the defeated. i need to look with my heart instead of my eyes. if someone offends me, i need to love them the most.