Attentive to God’s People
Let's read of Abraham's attentiveness. Genesis 18:2-5 says: "Abraham looked up and saw three men standing nearby. When he saw them, he hurried from the entrance of his tent to meet them and bowed low to the ground. He said, 'If I have found favour in your eyes, my lord, do not pass your servant by. Let a little water be brought, and then you may all wash your feet and rest under this tree. Let me get you something to eat, so you can be refreshed and then go on your way—now that you have come to your servant.'"
The text says it was the heat of the day when these three men appeared near his tent, and Abraham immediately recognised that they needed something he could give. And so he gets up to serve them and prepare something for them.
Abraham is attentive to their needs.
Following Jesus' Example of Attentiveness
I think if this happened in our day, Abraham would have had his eyes glued to his phone, and they probably would have stood there forever and eventually walked off! But he is not oblivious to the needs of the people around him. He is attentive.
Jesus was like this. Do you remember when Jesus was walking with a great crowd around Him, but He noticed that somebody had touched His garment? And so He stopped the whole procession and found the lady who had reached out for Him, and He gave her His attention and care? Attentive. Even in His busiest moments, Jesus attends to somebody in need.
I wonder if this is the pattern in your life? Or are you oblivious to the needs of others?
Practical Ways to Show Attention
Perhaps there is somebody close to you, in the same house as you or office as you, who really needs your encouragement, your blessing, your support. But you haven't voiced it. You haven't even noticed it. You've perhaps even been knocking them instead of encouraging them. Oblivious instead of attentive.
On the other hand, perhaps there is somebody in your situation who needs a break! But you're oblivious. You just keep pushing them and not even thinking about respecting their boundaries a bit. Are you attentive to what they may need, or oblivious?
Perhaps there are needy people in your community, and you just don't even see them anymore. Simone Weil said this: "Attention is the rarest and purest form of generosity." I wonder if there are people in your life that simply need a bit of attention from you.
One of the things I always try to do with people begging on the streets is to simply acknowledge them. I can't give to all of them, I have my ways of giving. But I never want to be so crass or oblivious that I can't give people a basic greeting, attending to their basic need of being seen.
Abraham here shows a very Christlike trait in seeing to the needs of these people.
Will you?
