“Pastor D!” Marcus exclaimed, as he and I walked into the convenience store together, him holding the door for me. “Haven’t seen you in a while!”

Marcus, the store’s manager, was adorned in a fluorescent vest indicating that he’d been working outside.

Just inside the double doors to my favorite morning pitstop, Marcus looked over to Mason who was working behind the cashier’s desk and said, “Look who I found!”

Mason happily chimed in “Marcus was just saying this morning that we haven’t seen you in a while. We’ve been wondering where you were! Where were you getting your coffee?”

Isn’t it wonderful to be “seen?”

No seriously! Doesn’t your world light up when someone takes a moment just to acknowledge you as a person, someone whom they are delighted to see?

Admit it: We all crave to be seen by others. This is a basic human desire, and when we lack it, all sorts of bad happens. We see the effects of this in people’s lives every single day at our shelter.

Jesus knew this too. Why do you think he went out of his way to “see” people wherever he traveled?

Remember, Zacchaeus, the tax collector? Yep, Jesus spotted him and called him by name, inviting him into a new life and restoring his dignity.

In the Gospel of John, Jesus tells Bartholemew (Nathanael), one of the first dozen apostles, “I saw you under the fig tree before Philip called you.”

The list of people that Jesus saw, and the world didn’t, is long: the woman at the well; the disciples, all of whom were not a “who’s who” before they followed Jesus; a blind beggar; the widow at the treasury. … You get the picture!

We do a lot of important work — no, living-saving work — at the mission. Sheltering people, feeding people and hopefully ultimately housing people. Hundreds of people, every single day. 

But after two years of working with this team of super heroes, you know what I’ve learned the most critical thing is that our team does? … Seeing people. Hands down.

Seeing people for the unique and beloved child of God they are.

On occasion, I have the great fortune that one of our guests takes a few minutes to share with me. And almost to a person, when they thank me for what the staff at the shelter does, it’s not about the physical needs that we address for which they are grateful.

No, what fills their eyes with tears is how one or more of our staff has seen them for the fellow human being they are.

And, I truly believe that as faithful people, that is the kindest way we can love our neighbor, just as Jesus commands us to do. Amen.

Devlyn Brooks is the CEO of Churches United in Moorhead, Minn., and an ordained pastor in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America serving Faith Lutheran Church in Wolverton, Minn. He blogs about faith at findingfaithin.com, and can be reached at devlynbrooks@gmail.com.