“Everyone you meet is (in God’s eyes) worthy of Christ dying on the cross.”
As I sat in my chair in a hotel conference room in Atlanta and heard these words, I froze. I paused with my pen poised over my notebook and let the words sink in. In between practicing training involving safety protocols and learning more about my role as my team’s treasurer, my squad mates and I were blessed with hearing from great speakers this week at our Launch.
This one sentence really resonated with me. It’s not news to me. If you had put this in a true or false statement, I would immediately agree it is true. I know Christ died on the cross for me and every other sinner (aka every other person) on the planet. Why, then, don’t I look at people with this perspective?
The depth of the impact of this knowledge should completely alter the way I look at every person I come across every single day. It should influence the way I act, speak, and feel about all people. It’s a lot easier to “love my neighbor” when I see them as a beautifully created, cherished child of God.
As I sit in the airport today, waiting for my 10:30 flight, I want to look around me and see what God sees. As I travel the world this year and come across people who are strange to me, I want to treat them like God treats me. I want to treat people with respect. I want to give grace even when it’s not deserved. I want to honor them as the children of the King of Kings.
The next time I look at the rude cashier at Walmart, the homeless man on the sidewalk, the girl whose clothes are less modest than I’m comfortable with, the drunk man stumbling into the street, I might try looking at them through God’s eyes. I think I’ll find they’re not that different than me. They are broken people with mistakes and scars. They are people loved by the God of the universe. God thinks they are worthy of death on the cross. Shouldn’t I treat them accordingly?
