Sometimes the most profound things occur completely unnoticed and in the most unexpected of places. Last night we were eating at Joe's Crab Shack. It was busy and once we were seated it got even more busy and people were standing at the door waiting for tables. As we were eating, I noticed a father come into the restraunt with his daughter. She was probably 11 or 12, and she was very excited. Her and her dad laughed and talked obviously greatly enjoying each other's company. Watching them made me smile inside because it reminded me of when my daddy would take me on "dates". We would go wherever I wanted to go, just me and him and I had his undivided attention for the evening. I loved those nights, just me and my daddy.
But as I watched them, and felt so happy for her, and hoped she enjoyed every minute of it...I saw something slightly different. I saw the way her daddy looked at her. She was his world. You could see it in his eyes. Daddy's little princess. Only then did I actually look at her. She was a bit on the scrawny side...caught in that not a child, not a teenager, odd kind of years. She was tall for her age, had glasses and braces and hair that looked like maybe she brushed it every couple of days. She was wearing a purple sweatsuit and the pants were about three inches too short. In all brutal honesty, she was not a very pretty little girl.
Then I looked back at her dad, and I realized that you could see her, but if you saw her reflection in his eyes, you saw someone totally different. Or maybe not. Maybe you saw who she really was. Because looking at her daddy eyes, she was the most beautiful little girl on the planet. She was adored. She was his entire universe. Who the world saw was completely different that what you saw when you saw her through the reflection of her father's eyes.
Then I realized, that's exactly the point that God tries to make when he calls us his children. It doesn't matter how the world sees us. It doesn't matter if we're poor, or disfigured, or ugly or fat, or scrawny, or have clothes that don't fit, or have glasses and braces. Too often we view each other without taking time to see one another through the eyes of our Father. If we look to him for the reflection of who we really are, we see a precious, perfect and completely adored child, who he loved enough to die for.
I could only imagine someone telling that father last night that his daughter was actually ugly. That she was too skinny, too tall, too odd looking. He may have been angry, but most likely he would have looked at them as though they were crazy. "THIS little girl? MY little girl? Have you seen her?? She's the most beautiful girl in the world! Look at her! She's perfect! You should have seen her when I held her for the first time, or when she took her first step, or when she tried on her mommy's makeup, or when she played dress-up in her mommy's dresses, or when I got her that puppy, or when she was in the school play! I'm so proud of her! She's absolutely perfect! You must be crazy!"
And then I can see what God must be thinking when we become arrogant enough to tell him where he messed up with one of his children. "That person's too fat, they're too skinny, they're just goofy looking, they're slow, they're not good at sports, they're ugly, they're deformed, they're so handicapped...wouldn't the world just be better off without them? Shouldn't they have to change to be accepted? Do we really have to hang around with them?" Sadly, I've heard people say those things. People even try to reason with God and say "They'd never be able to live a normal life anyway (as though we were the standard of "normal") we're just doing them a favor." And God, in his awesome wisdom says "My child, what are you talking about??? They're PERFECT and I LOVE them."
Ah, profound lessons learned in the most unsuspecting of places...
