One of the scenes from the film that struck me at the time was of Paddington 'staring out' the 'baddie' with the 'hard stare' which had been taught him by his Aunt Lucy, in case he should find himself in trouble. He uses this hard stare to stand up against wrong doings. This makes the miscreants feel hot and embarrassed and completely puts them off their stroke. It reminds me of our phrase of 'staring someone out!
Looking up 'seeing' first, then 'looking' and 'staring'; the definitions given in google are of 'seeing' as using the power of sight, 'looking' as 'paying attention to what one is seeing' and 'staring' as 'looking at something for a long time with eyes wide open'. Think of the phrases we use, such as, 'take a long hard look at' ....(whatever might be the issues we need to examine with care).
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Why would John the Baptist have needed to stare at Jesus? It must have been some kind of prompting which caused him to recognise in Jesus, as he walked along, someone and something so special, that he was 'the one who was to come', the Messiah. This seems to result in his virtually renouncing his own role, happily pointing his own 'disciples' in the direction of Jesus.
The very next day, Andrew, one of those who had followed after Jesus, brings his brother, Simon, to meet Jesus who, after 'looking hard' at him, must 'see' the man within, because he immediately renames him 'Cephas' (or Peter), meaning 'rock', a name which we know he will use much later in his ministry when he names Peter as the rock on which he will build his Church.
Wonderful!
Let us be more aware of those people or things at which we need to take a long, hard look to see the treasures within.
