When Sook and I first met, I noticed stares. I don't know if it was my imagination or if there was something that interesting about us. Like that we were so good looking.......or we didn't share the same skin color. Probably the latter. (My husband would say the former. Fruitcake.)
I don't notice stares anymore. Maybe I don't because there aren't any- or maybe I just don't care .
Sometimes I forget I'm in the middle of a mixed marriage. I've become the minority in my house with my blue eyes and light brown hair, but I truly don't see it. And though I marvel at my children's cute chubby cheeks and Asian eyes, I see something else much more important. I can't see it with my eyes, but it's there. I see their spirit. I see sweetness, spunkiness, curiosity, and compassion.
Something happens when you get to know and love a person so well. The lens of vision focuses on a part you cannot see. The other is still there, it's just a little blurred.
That is how God see me. He looks past my glasses and split ends. He is blind to my scattered brain. He does not define me based on my cooking or driving skills. He doesn't even think less of me when I am a horrible brat. Because He has paid for my sins and shortcomings, I look to Him as if sin had no effect. He sees me as I was made to be. Beautiful and successful, just like all of us humans. I receive that. I love that. I love God for that, because I know how I look otherwise.
But what I have seen now is astonishing. God is showing me how He sees others, too. How He sees the children in the foster care system at my work, with all the potential in the world. How He sees bullies, filled with His compassion. How He sees my sister without Fragile X. Intelligent and stunning. How He looks past all of our insecurities and absurd behavior. They are still there. But they are not who we are.
Race, disease, mistakes, popularity, status, and flaws do not define those who choose to take on the image of Christ. We can reject the negative definitions people put on us, and embrace the lovely, kind, true, and noble.
What would our world look like if we saw each other this way, and treated each other accordingly?
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