I find it interesting that God can speak to us while we are doing very natural things. Just today I was painting a wall, and as I was rolling the paint up and down the wall, God began to put thoughts in my mind about how we see things compared to how He sees things. The walls didn’t look perfect to me yet, but hopefully they would be when the paint dried. It was a reminder to me that God sees beyond the present, to see the finished product. He sees no one from the “worldly” point of view.
As a culture, we are very visual, and we look on the outside and make judgments about people or things, by their appearance. For example, we might have empathy for someone who looks sad, but have no sympathy for someone who is in incredible grief and isn’t showing it. Because a superficial glance cannot see the heart, we have to look past the external and be discerning and sensitive about what is going on in the inside of people around us. We’ve all heard the scripture about David, when he was rejected by Saul, but accepted and anointed by God through Samuel. It says in
I Samuel 16:7 that man looks on the outward appearance, but God looks on the heart.
Wouldn’t it be great if we could look past what we perceive with our eyes, and look into the heart of people? Most of the time, we would be surprised at what we saw. Most people are just like us and want to be loved and accepted just as they are. A short man can be a mighty man of valor, a tall lady can be a vessel mightily used by God, and a mentally challenged lady can be a passionate worshiper. Who would know that? God would! Let’s try to be like Him! (Eph 5:2)
II Cor 5:16-21, I Samuel 16:1-13