If God can speak through a donkey, why not an adorable lab named Maggie? Join us for our occasional "Maggie Moments" as Maggie's Mama Jeanne shares silly laughs and sweet insights from the life of her puppy. Learning to see God in our everyday moments....
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
man looks at. Man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the
heart.” 1 Samuel
16:7
Running as usual with Maggie this morning, greeting all who
we pass by with a hearty “hello”, we came upon a man out in his front yard who
replied to our greeting, “Beautiful dog! I’ve got one just like her”, and then
he added, “only she’s 13.” I replied that Maggie was only two, in her prime,
but that indeed, labs are the best dogs!
I was immediately convicted as I ran on of the prejudice
revealed in my own thinking, believing on some level I know, that Maggie was
more “prime” than this man’s unknown and older labrador. Contrary to popular
world opinion and often my own distorted perceptions, “prime” is not an age or
an outward appearance, rather it is an attitude or condition of the heart that
is revelatory about the worth we give something or someone.
Prime is typically
attached to things we consider important, central, excellent - and basically,
better. We have a kind of ranking system in our own minds, where we place value
based on what suits us and meets our felt needs, making us happy, comfortable,
in control and covered. In this
way, we gain our worth, validating ourselves in our own eyes. The problem is
that precisely because it is in our own
eyes, it is a false system of value or worth.
The only true validation of
what is “prime” comes from the Word of God, His truth revealed in His promises,
provision and protection, and in the person of Jesus Christ! As sinners, we are
bent on looking at all the wrong things, assigning improper value, calling
“prime” what is not really prime. We desperately need truth speaking to us,
making the cosmic shift in our twisted attitudes, opinions, perceptions, and
ideas, giving us the mind of Christ that we might then have the heart of
Christ.
The Lord is not fooled. He was not fooled by the prejudice that tried
to rise up in my thinking this morning. He sees all, hears all, and knows all.
Nothing is hidden from His view. It is the Lord who defines “prime”. And it is
His view of the inward, not the outward that truly matters. As regards our
dogs, the definition of “prime” was simply the value that man and I each gave
our respective pups as their rightful owners. Both our answers? Beautiful!
Beloved! Best! As it is with God, who alone can assign value to our being as
humans, created in His image.
Nothing we do on the outside to make ourselves be
or look better, younger, smarter, quicker, funnier, more successful, less
troubled, or whatever it is, is sufficient.
Our sufficiency,
our “prime” status, can come only from our rightful owner, Jesus Christ!
It is
by His blood, shed on the cross, that we are covered, and called, and proven to
be “prime”! There is no other way, no other worthy, no other “prime”. We must
receive by His loving truth and life, what only He can give, a heart that is
for Him and seeks to please and worship Him as Lord, for His names sake alone.
How concerned are we with outward appearances? Is the
outward appearance, both ours and others, central to our thinking, “prime”? Or
are we more concerned with inward appearances, with what the Lord sees when He
looks at us? I pray that we let the Word of God set our concerns straight! We
have been chosen as His children, made “prime” in Jesus Christ. Might we let
Him make us look more and more inwardly as we have already been made. From
everlasting to everlasting. Amen!
Jeanne
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