To See As He Sees

The LORD said to Samuel, “Do not consider his appearance or his height. . . . The LORD does not look at the things people look at. People look at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart.”

Outward Beauty

I had the blessing of getting to be the homecoming queen of my high school, which meant that the following year I got to come back and pass on the crown to the next queen. Standing on the football field and seeing all of the beautiful girls in their dresses, I went to hug them and tell them how gorgeous they looked and how sweet it was to see them. The time came for their dads to escort them down the field, and I stood at the opposite end as giddy as could be. With my overalls on, fancy shoes fitted in readiness, and the crown in my hands, I waited for the next queen to be announced.

After all of the homecoming maids had been escorted down the field, the announcer was suspenseful in every word leading up to the name of the queen. We all waited excitedly, and as he spoke the name of the next queen, my heart burst in celebration. The queen was my next-door neighbor. She was so precious, and I couldn’t get to her fast enough—I started dancing on my way to her and embraced her. As I placed the crown on her head, all my heart could find to say was, “You are so beautiful. I love you.” Tears filled her eyes, and she was overwhelmed with gratitude and awe.

Some of us have been homecoming queen and some of us haven’t, but I do know that we have all felt insecure at times, and this feeling captured our attention as though it was all that mattered. We have all felt like we are not pretty enough or do not measure up in how we look, but God looks at the heart. He does not make mistakes, but He makes masterpieces, and He declares each of us His original and beautiful masterpiece (Ephesians 2:10).

Beautiful to God

Leading up to this point, I had been specifically asking God to help me see myself through His eyes and to also see others the way that He sees them. God loves when we come to Him, and He loves to give us a Spirit of wisdom and revelation so that we may know Him better. When I placed the crown on the homecoming queen’s head, the Lord whispered into my heart that this is how He sees you and me. He calls us by name unashamedly and with great assurance and is ecstatic to be with us because He loves us so much that He begins dancing over us—He simply cannot contain His joy. Rejoicing over us with loud singing (Zephaniah 3:17) and quieting our hearts with His love, He speaks, “You are so beautiful. I love you,” and “He crowns [us] with love and compassion” (Psalm 103:4). We are His treasures.

1 Samuel 16:7 tells us, “The Lord does not look at the things people look at. People look at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart,” and regardless of where we are, God is our mighty Warrior who saves and has invited us to be His sons and daughters in His Kingdom. There is nothing in the past or present or future that separates us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord (Romans 8:38-39). He chose us before time began (Ephesians 1:4) and proclaimed that we are each His masterpiece.

Reflecting God’s Love

It was incredible that the precious soul I had the delight of crowning was my actual next-door neighbor because Jesus has commanded us to love our neighbor as ourselves. Just as I was dancing to crown my next-door neighbor, God calls us to love our neighbor as He loves. Because God does not look at the outward appearance but at the heart, we are then called to love people regardless of what they look like. When we know who we are in Christ, we are compelled by His love to dance to other people, eager to let them know who they are in the Father. We have been called by name to crown our neighbors in the truth that God has called them by name, that they are so beautiful to Him, and that He loves them, too. Every person we meet is our neighbor; therefore, let us be eager to speak life over one another just as our Heavenly Father has done for us.