Mahatma Gandhi once said, “He who does not see God in the next person he meets need look no further.” When you stop and think about it, that’s a pretty profound insight—spirituality is about seeing each other as God sees us—-imbued with the very image of God.
Imagine how that perspective would impact the way you looked at and treated every single person you encountered—the one sitting across from you on the bus, the one walking down the street in front of you, the one behind the desk next to you in the classroom, the person who sleeps in your bed every night … and the list could go on.
I love that statement’s paradigm of spirituality. It literally shouts to us that in our great search for God, to experience God and understand God, we dare not bypass the people all around us. God and people are not mutually exclusive in our spiritual journeys. It’s not one or the other, either/or. It’s in fact both/and.
Exciting Journey
And that’s what makes the spiritual journey so exciting and so filled with godly epiphanies. God has chosen to incarnate Himself in every single person. So if we can’t see God in others, how can we possibly see God the Divine?
Jesus once made the radical statement that by treating those in need (by giving water, food, clothing, housing, love and care), we are in fact treating Him with the same care (“…inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My brethren, you did it to Me” (Matthew 25:40). It’s like He’s saying the same thing as our opening statement: “If you don’t see God in the next person you meet (and act accordingly), you need look no further.”
The spiritual life is all about seeing God in others and treating them with godly respect and honor—seeing Jesus in every person we meet and loving them for what they show of Him. So where will God show up next in your life and how will you greet God then?
