1 Samuel 16:7-But the Lord said to Samuel, “Do not look at his appearance or at his physical stature, because I have refused him. For the Lord does not see as man sees; for man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.”
Guy Henry tells this story…This past summer I went to Wal-Mart for some supplies. I quickly did my shopping, but the people I was with were there more for browsing purposes. I had some time to kill. I wandered off to the men's department, and started to compare prices on various sock deals. There was a lady nearby looking through a rack of clothes (all right, there were LOTS of ladies looking through the racks!) I hadn't paid her any notice until I heard a commotion in her direction. Onto the scene burst a little girl about eight years old.
"Oh Mother," she said out of breath," Look at this dress!" She was holding a long black dress, still on its hanger.
This was far more interesting than comparing the varieties of socks, so I was watching this typical interchange.
"Do you LIKE that dress?" her mother asked calmly.
"Oh, I LOVE it, I absolutely love it," the little girl cried out.
"Do you WANT that dress?" her mother asked.
"More than anything!" she said excitedly.
The next words that came from the mother's mouth almost caused me to collapse to the floor. She said, "That dress is for a pretty little girl." She paused. Then she said, "And you are NOT a pretty little girl. Now put it back." And she returned to browsing the clothes rack.
I stood there amongst the socks in shock. I am not very emotional, but there were tears in both of my eyes after witnessing this scene. It wasn't the cruel words uttered by the mother that bothered me most; it was the reaction of the child. If she had stomped her feet and said, "I can't believe that you said that!" I would have felt a little better. Perhaps her mother was having a real bad day, a spell of bad judgment. Instead the little girl's smile vanished, her shoulders dropped, and she turned and left, probably to hang the dress back up. That told me that she had heard this sort of thing before, probably often.
I don’t know you had someone your talking to look past you ( they are looking at you then all of a sudden someone more interesting than you walks in the room), or you speak to someone and they don’t even acknowledge you are even in the room.
You walk in to some store and the sales clerks look down their noses at you!
Maybe you were feeling good about yourself and then you hear a snide comment about the clothes you wear, or your hairdo, or maybe something physical about your appearance and all of your self esteem is out the window.
We can sure take a beating (at lest verbally) about the way we look, we are all not a size 2, we are all not a size 28, but we are all important!
We are important to God and God looks at the heart!
We always tell our kids to look at the beauty inside a person, But God really does that!
I am so glad that God looks past the moles and the wrinkles, and the love handles and see my self-worth.
He not only see the person I am, but the person I can become!
Margaret Slattery, in her Living Teachers, tells of a community in which a stranger came to settle and to engage in the practice of law. He immersed himself in his legal work; and when he was sometimes seen walking at the eventide, he walked alone, with his head down, and with the look of mental distress upon his face. One day he confessed to an artist who had a studio in the town that he had made one sad and terrible mistake in his life. The artist said nothing, but parted from him and went into his studio. Weeks afterward, he invited this melancholy and dejected lawyer to come in and view a portrait which he had finished, telling him that it was his masterpiece. The man was surprised and pleased that his judgment should have been sought by the artist, but when he went into the studio to view the portrait, he was surprised to see that it was a portrait of himself, only now he stood erect, with his shoulders thrown back and his head up, ambition, desire, and hope written on his face. Regarding it in silence for a few moments, the man said, "If he sees that in me, then I can see it. If he thinks I can be that, then I can be that man; and, what is more, I will be."
May I pray a prayer as we close of an old puritan and may it be out prayer.
Lord, high and holy, meek and lowly, thou hast brought me to the valley of vision where I live in the depths but see thee in the heights. Hemmed in by mountains of my sin, I behold thy glory. Let me learn by paradox that the way down is the way up, that to be low is to be high, that the broken heart is the healed heart, that the contrite spirit is the rejoicing spirit, that the repenting soul is the victorious soul, that to have nothing is to possess everything, that to bear the cross is to wear the crown, that to give is to receive.
Lord, in the day times, stars can be seen from deepest wells. And the deeper the wells, the brighter the stars. Let me find thy light in my darkness, thy life in my death, thy joy in my sorry, thy grace in my sin, thy riches in my poverty, thy glory in my valley. In Christ's name. Amen.
