「要不要看我的疤痕？」我朋友比爾多年前從梯子上摔下來，導致他胸部以下癱瘓，現在他因為在一項手術中受到嚴重感染而住院治療。當我們討論他受到感染的問題時，他掀開毯子給我看因治療感染而留下的傷疤。我看著那道長長的傷疤，問他：「會痛嗎？」他說：「我根本感覺不到。」

他才說完我立刻感到愧疚。在我與比爾成為朋友的這許多年裡，我竟渾然不知他的癱瘓不僅限制了他的行動能力，也讓他失去觸覺。我覺得很愧疚，因我對他和他的傷勢沒有足夠的同理心，也沒有更深入地理解他每天需面對的挑戰。

我對朋友缺乏體恤和關懷，讓我想起猶大王希西家所做的事。當先知以賽亞告訴他，有一天他皇宮裡的一切將「被擄到巴比倫」，他的子孫也會「被擄去」（列王紀下20章17-18節），希西家卻覺得甚好。他心裡說：「在我的日子有和平和安全不是很好嗎？」（19節，新譯本）雖然希西家是個好國王，但他更關注自己，而非別人將面臨的景況。

上帝卻是截然不同！使徒約翰寫道：「不是我們愛上帝，乃是上帝愛我們，差祂的兒子為我們的罪做了挽回祭，這就是愛了」（約翰一書4章10節）。上帝如此深愛我們，甚至願意為了拯救我們而受苦，使我們能永遠活在祂的愛中。

“Do you want to see my scar?” My friend Bill had been paralyzed from the chest down after falling off a ladder years ago, and now he was in the hospital for a severe infection acquired during a surgery. As we discussed his new challenge, he lifted his blanket to show me the long incision made to treat his infection. “Does it hurt?” I asked. “I can’t feel it at all,” he said.

As soon as he said it, I felt convicted. During all the years I’d known him as a friend, I’d been unaware that his injury prevented both his mobility and ability to feel. I was embarrassed that I hadn’t had more empathy for him and his injury to better understand what he faced daily.

My lack of thoughtfulness about my friend reminds me of something King Hezekiah of Judah did. When the prophet Isaiah told him that everything in his palace would one day “be carried off to Babylon,” and his own descendants “taken away” (2 Kings 20:17-18), Hezekiah was pleased. “For he thought, ‘Will there not be peace and security in my lifetime?’ ” (v. 19). Even though he was a good king, Hezekiah was focused more on himself than on what others would face.

How different God is. “This is love,” John wrote, “not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son” to save us (1 John 4:10). God cares so deeply for us that He suffered for us, so that we might live in His love forever.