Seeing with the heart

“Lord, I want to see..." Luke 18.41

Sitting around the kitchen table last night, the conversation flowed as freely as the hospitality. In such situations it is fascinating to glimpse the world through other people's eyes, as long as they are speaking for themselves. But we are on less certain ground when it comes to how those who are not party to the discussion might view things. Public discourse around the legacy of slavery, informed by the Me Too and Black Lives Matter movements, insist that however open-minded we like to think we are, we cannot make assumptions on behalf of other people. Whether we are talking about family relationships or international relations, we need to let others speak for themselves before we can even begin to perceive reality through their eyes, which is the starting point for mutual understanding and, where necessary, reconciliation.