“He said also to the man who had invited him, ‘When you give a dinner or a banquet, do not invite your friends or your brothers or your relatives or rich neighbors, lest they also invite you in return and you be repaid. But when you give a feast, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, and you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you…’” (Luke 14:12-14, ESV).

Her poverty was the worst I had seen outside of Africa, houses made of cloth and cardboard, nestled against the river. She was the matriarch of her Roma family, and for a time she lived in Tirana. Dr. Ledia found her and saw God’s woman in her, though she had never known the God of the Bible. She was in constant pain with metastatic uterine cancer, being treated at a free clinic in the city. Dr. Ledia adopted her for Christ, prayed with her, shared with her—week after week, month after month. When I met Natascha, her cancer had improved dramatically; her pain had reduced to control with NSAIDs; and she had accepted Christ as Lord and brought many of her children to know Him.

There are people in this world in whom the world sees little value. And there are people who see these “valueless” people with the eyes of God. What happens when a Mother Teresa or a Dr. Ledia or we look at such people through God’s eyes rather than our own?

1. We become extremely grateful for the blessings He has provided for us and our families.
2. We become extremely embarrassed by all we have kept for ourselves when others are in such need.
3. We realize that in our own accomplshments we have no more value than the most broken and despised we see.
4. And in that flattened playing field of value, we find that God looks at each of us as royal children for whom He has died to save and bring back home.
5. We redirect our money to care for those for whom He cares so much.
6. We redirect our time to care for those for whom He cares so much.
7. We intentionally direct our actions to care for those for whom He cares so much.
8. We seek out those whom our world ignores and despises so that we might speak the name of Jesus, that they might kneel beside us as brothers and sisters at the feet of our Lord. 

Dear God,
There is none less deserving of your grace than I. “The ground is level at the foot of the cross.” Help me to serve those whom the world turns aside.
Amen