by Theresa Newell
There was once a girl who saw all the sadness in the world. She saw the hungry people, the sick people, the lonely people. It hurt her to take it all in. So much hurt in the world! What could one person do?
Then she met a man who said he had something very special for her—Magic Glasses of Compassion. The girl put on the glasses. She blinked. As her eyes got used to the glasses, she began to see things differently. She looked at the “needy” people in the world again, and she saw something new. She could still see the pain they carried, the sorrow, the hunger, and the hurt. But now, alongside the pain, she saw possibilities.
The one who was hungry was also very smart. He knew answers to big questions—scientific answers to save the environment! The one who was sick was also very caring. She knew how to love people in such a way that they gave up violence. The one who was ridiculed and bullied was also one who knew how to heal. They could discover cures to the world’s big sicknesses.
With the Magic Glasses of Compassion, the girl knew that all the answers and the world’s abundance were already there in the world—hidden in poverty, violence, oppression, and death. How could she get the world to see the abundance and possibilities she saw? How could she get people to believe in themselves? How could she get people to see that the “needy” were the ones with all the answers?
She began to tell people what she saw. She told them that the “Kingdom of God” was at hand—just below the surface. If only we could care for others, heal what hurts them, we could see the good come forward. Abundance and answers were there! Everything we need—everything the world needs is at hand. If only we could believe.
Theresa Newell is a hospital chaplain, a postulant for Holy Orders in the Diocese of Olympia, a wife, and a mother to mostly grown foster, adopted and biological children. She lives in the Seattle area with her husband, the youngest of her children, and her Great Dane.
