What does God see when He looks at us? What makes Him even want to give us the time of day? We are a fallen and broken people, selfish, prideful, sheep gone astray. Yet He reaches down to us, He offered His Son Jesus to take the punishment for our sin, so that those who believe on Jesus can have eternal life with Him. This truth still blows my mind when I consider who I am.
David asked the same questions: as gifts are given for the building of the temple, David writes in 1 Chronicles 29:10-14, “Praise be to You, Lord, the God of our father Israel, from everlasting to everlasting … Everything in heaven and earth is Yours … But who am I, and who are my people, that we should be able to give as generously as this? Everything comes from You, and we have given You only what comes from Your hand.” And in Psalm 8 he says, “Lord, our Lord, how majestic is Your name in all the earth! When I consider Your heavens, the work of Your fingers, the moon and stars, which You have set in place, what is mankind that You are mindful of them, human beings that You care for them?” (NIV)
In John 1:42, when Jesus saw Peter, who had been brought to Him by his brother Andrew, He said, “You are Simon son of John. You will be called Cephas.” Cephas means rock. And as we know from reading about Peter in the Bible, he was not a rock – at first. He was impulsive, unstable, he denied Jesus three times out of fear even though he had been following Jesus as one of His disciples. But Jesus wasn’t just looking at who he was at that moment; He was also seeing who Peter would become, by God’s grace. And later, Peter was a pillar of the early church. (Christians were even quarreling about who they were following [Paul, Apollos, Cephas] when Paul wrote to them in 1 Corinthians 1 about correcting their focus to be about following Christ, and Him alone.)
Actually, God has been changing names from the beginning: Abram to Abraham and Sarai to Sarah (Genesis 17:5, 15), Jacob to Israel (Genesis 32:28; 35:10). I hope you will take a minute to read these verses, as God tells why He is changing their names, for He is looking beyond right then and there, seeing who they are becoming by His grace.
We are fearfully and wonderfully made. YOU are fearfully and wonderfully made. God knew exactly what He was doing when He created us. He created these amazing bodies that function in a way beyond our full understanding. He loved us first – just because He loves us. He sees beyond today, He sees who we are through Jesus’ blood; His love for us is not dependent on us being perfect.
God sees who you are, and who you are becoming through His Son. When God look on us, He sees beauty … fearfully and wonderfully made.