We all have hearts that bleed, hearts that feel and ache and love. I wonder how we’d live if we actually saw that. I wonder if we’d bleed alongside them, if we’d lift them up and invite them in and care for the wounds.

I think it’s easy to get stuck, to see hearts that are pierced like ours and run from the ones that aren’t. Because those wounds on the heart, they are invisible, but the symptoms are not. They manifest in forms of alcoholism or porn addiction or racism.

And so we run. We hunker down in the safety of our communities and preach the love of God from a distance.

But that is not our mission.

Because when Jesus saw the weak, He walked with them. When He saw the lacking, He provided abundance. When He met the corrupt, He became a friend.

“Those who are healthy do not need a physician, but the sick do” (Luke 5:31).

It’s such a simple concept, isn’t it? Because we wouldn’t leave the broken on the side of the road to perish. We wouldn’t hide in our churches while the bloodied and wounded suffered outside. We’d go to help, call a doctor, grab a bandage.

I think we forget that the same is true for the battered hearts. Because it’s hard to look inside and see what Jesus saw. . . potential. It’s hard to look at the assassin and think, hope. It’s unthinkable to see the rapist and think, promise.

But it’s there. It’s always there. Hope. Because He is our doctor. Let us invite in the sick.

[bctt tweet="Let us invite in the sick." username="IamBritCal"]

Have you seen this statute of the Sacred Heart of Jesus at Sacred Heart Seminary in Detroit?

Brittany Calavitta is an enthusiastic advocate for a good book, strong coffee, and a hopeful heart. After battling years of infertility, she and her husband welcomed their first child on September 11, 2016. You can find out more about her here.