The Look of Love

Recorded in Mark 10 is an incredible moment in time. It's one that most of us have experienced ourselves, but one we may have forgotten about as we've gone about the business (and busy-ness) of living the Christian life.
It's the story of the rich young ruler. (That's what we call it. The Bible does say "he had great possessions", but it doesn't say anything about his age.) He ran to Jesus and, falling at His feet, asked what he must do to "inherit eternal life." Jesus gave him the Bible answer; He gave him the commandments to which the man replied "I've done all of that! Since I was a little boy."
Then it happened. Jesus gave him "The Look." Mark 10:21 says, "Then Jesus beholding him loved him, ...

Can't you just feel that? Jesus ... beholding him ... loved him.
Jesus eyes locked on him. At that moment nobody else mattered. Nobody else was even in the same zip code. It was just him and Jesus. And the look in Jesus eyes revealed the depth of love He felt for this wayward man who had so much in this world.
It must have been an extraordinary look. Some twenty to thirty years later, when Mark recorded Peter's recollections of the Savior, he wrote about "The Look."

Do you remember that look? Do you remember the first time Jesus' love penetrated your world like that? All of our learning and growing and planning and doing can carry us far from that moment in time, can't it? But it's that look that changed our lives.

That moment in time when His love overwhelmed us is the moment when the course of the rest of our lives was set.