Be All You Are

Have you ever been so overwhelmed by someone's simple kindness that you are the only one in the room standing in a puddle of tears? They were merely doing something they wanted to do, but it touched you so deeply, it made you cry. Their actions demonstrated to you their character -- or what you believed to be their character. They saw it through a different lens; they were simply "being them." Heroes who rush into a burning building to save someone usually tend to think they were just doing what anyone would do. True philanthropists look back and see how they could have given more. Wonderful parents review every moment of their child-rearing days, sometimes wishing they had been better equipped, or less pressured by others, or more involved. Those saved, helped, or raised, see their champion as selfless and invaluable. They see things through a different lens.

God sees through a different lens, also. God sees us through the blood of His Son, Jesus Christ. 1 John 1:7b tells us, the blood of Jesus cleanses us from unrighteousness. God looks on us through the blood of Christ and sees righteous people, blameless people. Are you blameless? I'm certainly not. I mess up daily, but the blood of Jesus justifies, making it "just-if-I'd" never sinned. I know I sin, and God knows, too-- He's not foolish or ignorant --but, by His grace, He chooses to see me as made righteous by the blood of Jesus. It is only His grace that makes such a phenomenon possible. He refuses to see me any other way.

When Scott and I met, he thought I was WOW! Now, I don't even see myself as wow and honestly, I thought his judgment to be a bit questionable. I kept saying things like, "Wait until you see me first thing in the morning," and "You haven't seen that side of me yet." But he was insistent; he saw me as WOW! Here's the funny thing, the more he insisted, the more I wanted to be WOW! He didn't expect me to be that way -- he already saw me that way; I just wanted to do everything to live up to the way he saw me. I wanted to become exactly what he already thought I was.

Through the lens of Christ's work on the cross, God sees those in faith as righteous. He calls us forgiven, justified, righteous children of light. Our love for Him should cause us to want to live up to that. I mean, I love Scott, I really do, but his opinion is just his opinion. What God says of His children is truth! Let's face it, if the opinions of those we love can rouse us to want to be all they believe us to be, how much more the truth of the God we adore? How much more can our love for Him persuade us to live up to the identity in Christ which He confers upon His saints?