I've been reading through Isaiah lately. I love how that will intersect with Advent and Christmas this year. But as I was reading the familiar prophecy about the Branch of Jesse in chapter11, part of verse three jumped out at me.
"He will not judge by what he sees with his eyes, or decide by what he hears with his ears."
As my way of looking at the world and the people in it has changed over the past few months, I find myself much more aware of when things go wrong or people are not being their best selves. The same goes for myself, of course. I notice when I'm being selfish, or someone else is. But this little verse in the middle of Isaiah grabbed me and I kept coming back to it as I interacted with family over Thanksgiving. All I can do is use my ears and eyes to interact with others. That's it. I can't know what is going on in their minds or hearts or spirits. They can tell me, but even then I am dependent on how they say it and how I hear it. So there's just no way around it: I cannot judge others. It is humbling to realize that I'm left with nothing on which to base any judgment. End of story.
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