look inside a person to find their true beauty

Many times in our lives we will come across people that we perceive to be less than we are or in a different stage of life than we are.  A lot of times we are quick to discard these people based off of age, race, religion or even economic status but if we are living the life that Jesus has caused us to live we will no longer see people from their outer shell but we will see them through the eyes of God. 

 

When Jesus was at the well with the Samaritan woman and asked her to get him a drink of water, her response to him was why are you speaking to me?  Why are you a Jew speaking to me a Samaritan woman?  Basically, don’t you know that you are not allowed to speak to me because your status is higher than mine?  Not only are you a man but you are a Jewish man and I am but a lowly Samaritan woman.

I think the way Jesus answered her was perfect and something that we can put to use in our lives today.  Jesus responded to her, and I am paraphrasing with this, but basically, if you knew who it was you are speaking to you would be asking me for what I have to quench your thirst and not your human thirst but your spiritual thirst.  Your thirst to know God and to have a closer relationship with the Father. 

You would know that you are standing in the presence of a King and beg of me to help you.  It didn’t take long for her to see that she needed what Jesus was offering her and quickly she asked him for his living water.  She was asking Jesus to be her salvation and save her from herself.   

In today’s world most of us would never take the time to even listen to someone standing by a building asking for help, let alone actually help him.  We have become very focused on the outer shell of people that we allow that to stop us from seeing the beauty inside of them.  We are so focused on ourselves that we thirst daily, a thirst that can never be quenched, from any drink we can find.  I believe this is why we have become so hard hearted towards one another.   If we would drink the water, the living water, that is what Jesus has to offer, the hardening of our hearts would start to soften and we would begin to see and feel people’s pain around us. 

The other day I was at the grocery store and there were only a few registers open but the store was fairly busy and as I waited in line for the girl to scan my items an older man came and waited in line behind me.  Normally, I see someone who only has a few items and I let them go in front of me but he had come after I was already being rung up.  As the girl was checking me out I had a nudge inside my spirit telling me to pay for his crossword puzzles.  I started the internal conversation with God saying, how can you ask me to do this, I don’t know him. 

As she was giving me my total I heard myself say I’d like to pay for his book, as well.  The man who was probably in his seventies had a look of astonishment on his face and the cashier was also confused and said, you want to pay for his items?  I said yes, I would like to buy his book for him.   He kindly looked at me and said I am getting two books and I said well I’d like to pay for both of them.  He thanked me and I responded with you are welcome, and I had a good feeling because I obeyed God and stepped out. 

Now, I should probably tell you that when I go to the grocery store I look a mess.  I am not a fashion, girly girl.  I am a jeans, t-shirt, hair in a ponytail no make-up girl, so imagine what he probably thought when he heard me ask to buy his books for him.  I am sure first he was shocked that I wanted to do so and he might have thought, well she doesn’t look like she can pay for her own items let alone mine.   He could have told me no based on my appearance but he didn’t and I was able to fulfill the request God had put in my heart. 

I am telling this story not for glory for myself but to tell you that we should stop looking at the people around us and qualifying them and see them as God sees them, as his people.  I am not a rich person but I am also not poor but if you would have judged me on my appearance at the grocery store you might think that I am a poor person and how wrong would he have been.   

God has given us an outer body to house our soul and spirit but we are not to judge each other by our outer body, we are to look at the person’s soul and react to that. 

We are to be the sharer of God’s Living Water in the world so that the people around us will never have to thirst again but have their thirst quenched.  I am hoping that the young cashier and the older man saw God that day through me.  I hope that they both had a moment and were able to receive the blessing and not the act.  I was only doing my job in being obedient to the task that God has placed on my heart. 

 

If we would all start to be obedient to the calling of God on our lives we would no longer live for ourselves and deny others.  We would look at every person we come across as if they were as valuable as we believe ourselves to be, because they are.  There is not hierarchy with God.  We are all his children and he has called us to love each other because he first loved us.

Next time you see someone that is different than you or you perceive to be in worse shape than you are, remember the Samaritan woman, and Jesus at the well, and know that we are all a Samaritan woman in the eyes of God.  We all fall short of God’s Glory and yet we are redeemed and made right in the eyes of God.  We should be sharing the gift that we so freely receive everyday with the people around us instead of allowing them to be thirsty!