Day Seventeen: I Tricked My Wife

Each day this month, we will consider key moments in God’s glorious plan to redeem us. We will understand both the overarching story of God and the highlights of all he’s done for us in Christ.

I was once a slim, handsome young man with lots of dark, wavy hair and a killer mustache. A young woman fell in love with me and foolishly made solemn wedding vows to me. Ever since, I have gradually transformed myself into a hideous old man. Either all my shirts have shrunk or my belly has ballooned alarmingly. What hair remains on my head has turned frosty grey. My ugliness now frightens children and some small dogs.

And somehow, beyond all comprehension, she remains married to me. Years of togetherness have robbed her of all perspective. Amazingly, she values me and can overlook my outward deterioration.

Does she perhaps look at me the way God does?

Consider this quote: “But the LORD said to Samuel, ‘Do not consider his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him. The LORD does not look at the things people look at. People look at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart’” (1 Samuel 16:7).

After the disastrous days of the judges, the people of God prematurely demanded a king. The first king, Saul, looked good on the outside but soon stopped obeying the Lord. Israel needed a new king, and God’s prophet, Samuel, checked out many candidates. The tall, strong, handsome guys were rejected by God, and instead Samuel anointed a young shepherd boy, David, the next king of Israel. 

We humans value externals. God values the inside. God chose to use David significantly not because of his good looks, strength, or creativity but because he found a man “after my own heart” (Acts 13:22).

Proverbs 4:23 says, “Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it” (New International Version). 

If we watched over our hearts the way we work on our appearance, God could do a lot with us too. I am so glad that God sees my heart and doesn’t consider my outside appearance. And, thankfully, neither does my wife.

Lord God, thank you that because of Jesus, you do not see my sin, my imperfections, my impurity. Instead, you see me as pure and blameless in your sight, united with Christ in his death, burial, resurrection, and ascension. Help me see myself as you do more and more, and to see every one of my brothers and sisters in the faith the same way. Amen.

**Throughout This Day: **Ask God to help you see each person you meet or interact with today as he does, and not as society does. 

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