‘If you could see her through my eyes,’ croons the
tavern-keeper in the musical Cabaret. If you could see her through my eyes ...
Deeply embedded in every heart is the gold God put there. In
some people, it glistens and shines and is easy to see. In others, dirt
encrusts it, and few people even know it’s there.
But God does. And if we try to see others through His eyes,
attentive to his voice, we, too, may just catch a glimpse of beauty among the
ashes.
That’s one of the exciting challenges of trying to live a
Christian life. Trusting God’s Word, where he says that we all are made in the
image of God, and then looking for signs of Him in the lives of others. When we
see a glimmer of gold, it is so rewarding, so encouraging, to share that with
the person involved. Encouraging to the person, who may have a very poor
self-image; rewarding for us to see how a good word spoken to someone enables
him or her to flower and bloom.
It’s easy to see the dirt in our own lives and in the lives
of others. Not so easy to see the gold. But Jesus always looked for the gold,
and it was the gold he called out. Simon Peter wobbled and failed Jesus,
abandoning him at his lowest and most isolated moment, and yet after the
resurrection, Jesus called him Peter, the rock. He’d hardly shown rock-like
characteristics as he’d vehemently denied that he even knew Jesus after his
arrest, and yet Jesus looked at him and knew that in his heart, he was a rock
of faith.
It is tempting for all of us to write people off as a lost
cause when we don’t like them or don’t agree with them. Jesus never writes
anyone off as a lost cause. Look how he turned Saul round on the road to
Damascus, as his fury drove him onwards in deadly pursuit of Christians. Nobody
is a lost cause.
Thank goodness for that.
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