What do you see?

            Imagine you are standing in a circle with a group of people. You make mental notes of each person; brown eyes, big smile, thin eyebrows, a mole just under the left nostril and so on. There is one face that you cannot make notes on; your own. Your own face is one that you can never see first-hand, it is only through mirrors or pictures or perhaps another’s explanation that you can have any familiarity with your own face. This realization has occupied my thoughts a lot lately.  It is interesting that we cannot see something of which we are most critical. Yet, that is not what others see or notice about us. We lean toward focusing on the things about our faces that we don’t like.

            This may sound a bit boastful, I present the following to make my point. I have quite lovely, deep, dark, brown eyes with appropriate eyebrows. Yet, the first thing I assume others notice are my flaws, I have a scar on my upper lip from a cleft lip at birth. In my mind that scar is a bullseye on my face. Chances are you have such a blemish or insecurity about your appearance as well. This tendency to focus on minor flaws is a common trait in most every person I have ever met. We are quick to compare ourselves with others not just in appearance but in that “keeping up with Jones” sort of way too.  The bible warns against such actions in 2 Corinthians 10:12: “We do not dare to classify or compare ourselves with some who commend themselves. When they measure themselves by themselves and compare themselves with themselves, they are not wise.”

            Here is the good news; God sees us completely flawless through Jesus’ eyes. He does not look at us the way we look at each other; we have redemption through Jesus, he looks at us and sees love. This doesn’t mean he turns a blind eye to our sin but he extends his hand to cleanse us of our sin. Our confession is met with the crucified hand of Christ who welcomes us into his kingdom with great love and joy. If you’re willing to afford me a bit of humor; it is as though we hand our sin over to Christ and it disappears through the nail holes in his hands, to be remembered no more.  

He does the same with our burdens if we will allow him to do so. All too often we take it back and try to handle it ourselves. It is the same with our appearance; we tend to be quick to point out our flaws before others might do so. It is a very rare occurrence when someone else points out the scar on my lip, nor does God bring up past sins. Once we confess our sins and ask for forgiveness, the flaw is no longer on God’s radar.

Psalm 103:11, 12 “ For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his love for those who fear him; as far as the east if from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us."