See As God Sees
“To love someone means to see him as God intended him.” ~ Fyodor Dostoyevsky
There is the old adage, “No one likes surprises.” And, to a certain extent, that is true. Employers do not want surprises. They want their employees to give them a head’s up if there is going to be any problem. We do not like surprises that will negatively impact us. We want to be aware of anything that may need our preparation and response.
On the other hand, I like surprises as well. I like the surprise of a beautiful sunrise on a day that I thought would be dreadful or a splendid sunset on a day that was bad. I like the surprise of someone thanking me for something I said or did when I felt as if I were making no positive impact with my life. I like the surprise of coming to know someone as good and holy when I thought that person might not be good at all.
Those surprises can only be had when we view the world through the eyes of God. When we see things and people as God created them, their splendor opens up to us in ways we never would have imagined. The problem in our lives is that we often wake up convinced about how our day is going to unravel. We make up our minds ahead of time that we are going to have a bad day, a bad encounter with an individual, a miserable time at a function and so on.
We need to get rid of all those negative preconceived notions so that we can see things unravel according to the Lord’s design. He has a plan and if we cooperate with Him, His plan will make sense. If we butt heads with God, we are not going to get anywhere. If we open our eyes, though, and ask God to help us view our world through His eyes, we might be surprised by what we see. We might even be wowed.
Thus is the case with other people. When we decide that we are going to like someone or that we will have no use for someone based upon our own experience or our own mood, we might miss out on the opportunity to come to know that person well. We might even miss out on making a new friend or, perhaps, a best friend. However, when we see the person through the eyes of God, we will come to see his or her inner beauty, the soul that shines from within.
Doing so has two benefits. It helps us truly to see the other. It also helps us to see our own selves through the eyes of God rather than through the judgmental eyes of our human nature.
FAITH ACTION: Ask God to show you the world and the people you encounter today through His eyes so that you may respond to them as God wills.