My youngest strode across the blacktop, chest puffed out, looking like he was about to pop. Before he was even in the car, in a rush of words he explained how he was the only one who already knew how to use the microscopes and how the professor had asked him to help everyone else learn the adjustments in order to see the slides properly. We’re able to see germs to diagnose disease from a cellular level and galaxies of stars billions of miles away but we struggle with seeing the heart of the person standing next to us. It’s far too easy to focus on their hair or their skin or their clothing or what we heard about them last year.
We can choose what we focus on. We can choose what we magnify. The radio host used these comments to introduce a song last week during my commute and I was so struck by the thought that I made a voice note and saved them to mull over. Think about it this way. A microscope or a telescope is useless if it’s out of focus. If the slide is not in its proper place, magnifying the tabletop beneath may expose a bacteria but it will not be useful to the pathologist. We can choose what we focus on. We can choose what we magnify.
Gender is becoming as much of a dividing factor as race has been in our country. We can’t seem to heal from one hurt without falling head first into another one. It’s so easy to judge at a glance, sorting souls into stereotypical categories without care. As followers of Jesus, we must learn to see others as He does. When He purposely joined humanity, Jesus set the standard for human interaction. He did not get along with everyone He encountered nor did He blindly embrace everyone. He saw as his Father sees and He spoke the undisguised truth. He saw what He and the Father and the Spirit decided before the creation of the world. He sees His image, distorted though it may be, in each individual, and He points the way back to the Father.
“But the Lord said to Samuel,
“Don’t judge by his appearance or height, for I have rejected him.
The Lord doesn’t see things the way you see them.
People judge by outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.””
1 Samuel 16:7 NLT
https://bible.com/bible/116/1sa.16.7.NLT
“The Lord looks down from heaven and sees the whole human race.
From his throne he observes all who live on the earth.
He made their hearts, so he understands everything they do.”
Psalms 33:13-15 NLT
https://bible.com/bible/116/psa.33.13-15.NLT
We must learn to see the individual’s heart; to stop grouping people into categories. Where would you group me? I hope Christian, but the stereotypes you attach to that depends on where you’re from, who your parents are, and your entire life experience. That’s the problem with our judgements. They are entirely subjective. They depend upon far too many variables that are constantly changing. That’s precisely why God is the only Judge. He never changes.
“Whatever is good and perfect is a gift coming down to us from God our Father, who created all the lights in the heavens.
He never changes or casts a shifting shadow.”
James 1:17 NLT
https://bible.com/bible/116/jas.1.17.NLT
“Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.”
Hebrews 13:8 NLT
https://bible.com/bible/116/heb.13.8.NLT
That person who hurt me is not Christ or the church. That person does not represent God. That person has the same free will that I enjoy. Would I choose to revoke free will to prevent injustice? Would I choose to give up my freedom in order to change what happened to me or to someone I love? I am not God. Only God is a Righteous Judge. Only God sees the whole story from start to finish. God is the whole story from start to finish. The Alpha and Omega. The Beginning in the End.
““I am the Alpha and the Omega—the beginning and the end,” says the Lord God.
“I am the one who is, who always was, and who is still to come—the Almighty One.””
Revelation 1:8 NLT
https://bible.com/bible/116/rev.1.8.NLT
“I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End.””
Revelation 22:13 NLT
https://bible.com/bible/116/rev.22.13.NLT
““For this is how God loved the world:
He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.
God sent his Son into the world not to judge the world, but to save the world through him.
There is no judgment against anyone who believes in him.
But anyone who does not believe in him has already been judged for not believing in God’s one and only Son.
And the judgment is based on this fact:
God’s light came into the world, but people loved the darkness more than the light, for their actions were evil.
All who do evil hate the light and refuse to go near it for fear their sins will be exposed.
But those who do what is right come to the light so others can see that they are doing what God wants.””
John 3:16-21 NLT
https://bible.com/bible/116/jhn.3.16-21.NLT
I choose to trust God with my story because I know that I really can’t trust myself.
“The heart is hopelessly dark and deceitful, a puzzle that no one can figure out.
But I, God, search the heart and examine the mind.
I get to the heart of the human. I get to the root of things.
I treat them as they really are, not as they pretend to be.”
Jeremiah 17:9-10 MSG
https://bible.com/bible/97/jer.17.9-10.MSG
I choose to magnify the Lord. I choose to focus on Jesus. As followers of Christ, let’s take the lead.
“I’m not saying that I have this all together, that I have it made.
But I am well on my way, reaching out for Christ, who has so wondrously reached out for me.
Friends, don’t get me wrong:
By no means do I count myself an expert in all of this, but I’ve got my eye on the goal, where God is beckoning us onward—to Jesus.
I’m off and running, and I’m not turning back.”
Philippians 3:12-14 MSG
https://bible.com/bible/97/php.3.12-14.MSG
God Is In This Story
Katy Nichole & Big Daddy Weave
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