God Looks on the Heart

A little girl was sitting on her grandfather’s lap as he read her a bedtime story.  From time to time, she would take her eyes off the book and reach up to touch his wrinkled cheek.  She was alternately stroking her own cheek and then his again.  Finally, she spoke up, “Grandpa, did God make you?”  “Yes sweetheart,” he answered, ‘God made me a long time ago. God made you just a little while ago.”  Feeling their respective face again, she said, “God’s getting better at it, isn’t he?”

The joke is funny – but it’s not true.   It’s funny because it fits our culture. Yes, God did make the little girl.  And God did make the grandpa too.  But it’s not true because younger is not better.  God created us to look one way as a little girl or a little boy, but we were not created to look that way forever.

Presbyterian Pastor Gilbert Bowen once said, “I think we need a new way of seeing. We need to learn to see one another and ourselves with the eyes of God. We need to learn to listen and sense the soul beneath the skin, the beauty and strength within. We need to look at one another with eyes that are patient and perceptive enough to pick up the décor of the soul.”

1 Samuel 16:7 reads, “The Lord does not see as mortals see. They look at outward appearances, but the Lord looks on the heart.”

May you learn to see yourself and others with the eyes of God.

Let us pray:  We thank you, O God, that your love for us is more than skin deep.  We thank you that you created each of us in your own image – and that you love your creation. I pray for all those today who are struggling with aging or with their self-image. Remind us, Lord, that what we see on the surface is not complete. Wash over us with your grace and give us eyes to see the soul beneath the skin and the beauty and strength within. Amen.