EYES OF GRACE

My drive-time ruminations today started when I was adjusting my mirror after leaving the twins at Rocky Bayou Christian School. (I turn my mirror down enough to view them in the backseat while I'm driving. Just a little "help" for the Grammie whose 'eyes in the back of her head' can't see through the headrest. ;o/)

I was thinking about how God made our ability to "see" beyond the image we think we are observing. Joined to the physical sense of sight is a process in the brain that controls our emotions. This process can help us to focus better on what we see; on the other hand it might skew it completely. You've heard the saying, "Beauty is in the eye of the beholder." This is so true! The question comes to me though...can that be changed? and, if so, how?

The majority of us have a healthy self-image. I mean, even though we have a flaw or imperfect feature, most of us have learned to live with it. And, if doctors were a little more forthcoming with us, we would understand that most people have one ear higher than the other, or one leg slightly shorter than the other. There is no perfect person on this Earth!! We couldn't handle being perfect any better than we handle imperfection. 

Besides, I believe that God gave us the little flaws, the stand-out ears or the one eyelid that is slightly droopy, on purpose. Every time we look into the mirror we see that blemish, that not so perfect image, and, when we do, we are reminded of our inadequacy. I mean, really! Look in the mirror. Do you see someone that can be called a god or goddess? Someone who knows all about the millions of people on the Earth and how their lives should progress? Someone who can heal disease or a broken bone? (Well, when the Holy Spirit moves through us, that can happen.) We know our limitations and do not vie with our Creator to be God...at least consciously. 

SIDE NOTE: Why do people ask "Why did you do that, God?" Do they think that an answer from Him could be understood by us imperfect humans? Really??

This is the bottom line of my musing today. If we can love ourselves, including the imperfections we have, why can't we accept and love those imperfect people around us?Their flaws may be different than ours, but who is taking notes on flaws?

1 Corinthians 13:11 When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man,I put the ways of childhood behind me.

Several years ago a couple in our church was expecting their third child and all seemed to be going well. I don't know specifics because I wasn't in close relationship with them. However, it was apparent at birth that the child, a boy they named Daniel, had the genetic disorder of Down Syndrome. I don't pretend to understand the thoughts and emotions that a parent feels at such a revelation nor the magnitude of change it brings to the family so the following is strictly my observations.

On a Sunday morning soon after Daniel was born, the Lord gave me a word I was to share with Laura. As I said earlier, I wasn't in close relationship with them but, as the Associate Pastor's wife, held some authority to speak...and was to be an example of obedience. If I did not obey, He would find someone else who would and there seemed an urgency that I couldn't deny. So, with tears in my eyes I told her, "God has chosen you to be Daniel's mom just as He chose Mary to be the mother of Jesus." 

We left the church not long afterward so I never talked with Laura to hear how that word affected her life. I do know that she shook her head and cried when I spoke it. I have also watched Laura and the whole Lehenbauer family as they walked through the beginning of Daniel's life. God did not heal Daniel; instead he fashioned a miraculously changed heart in lives of people around Daniel starting with his parents and siblings. 

I can't speak for the family but I know for myself that Daniel was not seen as imperfect; he was just Daniel. Without his imperfections, he would have been a different person and we who knew him would be less healed and more imperfect. We see Daniel through "eyes of grace" and let him be Daniel Lehenbauer, third child of Laura and Gregg.  If he falls into the average stats of a Down Syndrome child, Daniel will forever be a child mentally. Why should we who experience the hardships of life, who entertain sinful thoughts, who are disobedient to our Heavenly Father and who live with the knowledge of our sin feel sorry for Daniel? He is the one who is free of it all!

On the other hand, Daniel knows what it is like to see with the "eyes of grace" as a child does. He does not envy or become jealous; he does not covet the things another has. Daniel is for us a silent teacher of what is right and an example of how it can be lived out.

Matthew 19:14 But Jesus said, Suffer little children, and forbid them not, to come unto me: for of such is the kingdom of heaven.

The Lehenbauer family went to the mission field of Guatemala and the Casa de Esperanza for a period of 3 years. Gregg was in charge of new building construction, operations, all new mechanical systems in addition to repairing and maintaining the old ones. Laura, as a Registered Nurse, was greatly needed and utilized. What no one thought about was the effect of Daniel on the Guatemalan people! We all should meet someone with the spirit of Daniel.

LADYING FOR DECEMBER 11, 2014: Do you have "eyes of grace" to see the beauty in others instead of their flaws? If you can't, take a look at the (spiritual) glasses you have on. It could be the lens are yellowed with selfishness and pride. Ask God to clean them. Beauty is all around you! Behold it...