Seeing Others as God Sees Them

Jesus looked beyond people’s faults and saw their need – they were like sheep without a shepherd. Many times Christians feel that being around different kind of people- not like them is an unpleasant experience. Some people are very self-centered and their “holy Ghost” language can be less than desirable. We forget, though, that the problem is not what others do, it’s who they are – individuals who have been brought up in a different environment and acquired some negative behaviors. As Christ looked beyond the person’s actions and saw the problem, we are to do the same. We must have a heart of compassion toward others and see them the way Christ does. His practice is to be our pattern.

We need to remember that what we see is based on all of our senses, what we heard, smelled, tasted, and felt in addition to what we saw is all part of the memory. Added to what our senses told us is what we believed about the event as part of the memory. For example, if we saw a large man speaking to a tiny woman, we may remember the man as being aggressive. Or if we saw a poorly dressed person speaking to someone well dressed, we may remember the poorly dressed person a hassling the other one. Or we might have just the opposite impression depending on what our life experience has been. Seeing is very much about our own life experiences.

Our first challenge when we see a person is to recognize our assumptions and set them aside so we can really see the person as they are. It isn’t easy to get by our assumptions, they are shortcuts we have developed to make decision making easier. We see someone with a condition that makes movement difficult and we assume they will appreciate us helping them to get about. We see an elderly person and we assume they will appreciate our speaking a little louder. We see someone poorly dressed and we assume they will appreciate a hand out. We see someone of a different race and we assume they will appreciate our telling them we are not prejudiced. We see someone younger than us and we assume they will appreciate our advice. If we can put people into a box within seconds of meeting them, it seems to make life easier. It is so much harder to allow the person to reveal who they are to us.

It takes so much patience and it goes against our way of knowing each other. We do it even among ourselves. What almost everyone appreciates is someone who takes the time to know them individually. We appreciate someone who is willing to listen to our hopes and our struggles and to honor them by not trying to help us until we express what would be helpful. Everyone appreciates someone who will listen to them and then not share what they have heard with anyone else unless they have been given permission to do so.

As God’s people, we are to see each other and ourselves as God does. We look at the exterior, the manifestation of the person while God looks on the heart. It seems to me, if we are to see as God sees, we are to examine others and ourselves for the gifts and talents within them and us. When we look at another person, we seek out what are their passions so we can try to understand what motivates them to be who they are. I find it helpful, when I meet someone I find hard to treasure, to try to understand what motivates them to behave as they do. I believe that very few people have as their sole motivation the annoyance of others.

Most people are being the best person they can be. In order for us to live in harmony with others, we must make the effort to listen to them and understand what their life experience has taught them about how best to survive in this world. If we listen, not to prove them wrong, but to understand them, we will find it easier to cope with their behavior.

Understanding does not mean accepting or agreeing, it means we see how the way the world is to them would cause them to behave in ways we find disturbing. Taking the time to see the heart of another person takes time, but doing so allows us to not only understand why they do what they do, it allows us to discover the gifts and talents they have to offer.

Seeing the heart of another person is not easy but it is the way God sees them and it is the way God sees us. It is also difficult to see ourselves as God sees us. We have a tendency to discount or exaggerate the gifts and strengths God has given us. Perhaps we have been raised to believe it is arrogant to put yourself forward as having something to contribute to a discussion or situation and so you sit back waiting to be invited personally to contribute.

No one else may know your talent or knowledge but you still wait to be invited. You may also have an exaggerated sense of how important you are to a situation or may feel you have to do something even if you have no talent for what is being required simply because you are afraid no one else will do it or they won’t do it the way you think it should be done.

We must see ourselves as God sees us, with certain gifts and talents we are given to share with the community and to trust God will provide those with the gifts and talents that are not ours to share. It is often more difficult for us to critically examine ourselves than it is for us to critically examine others. To see ourselves as God sees us requires us to open ourselves up to God to reveal to us what we have been gifted to do and what is not our task to assume.

One thing we cannot see as God sees is the outcome of our interactions with others or the outcome of the gifts and talents we share. Sometimes we feel our time getting to know another person deeply is wasted because the relationship does not improve. We may be discouraged when we share our talents with the community and they don’t seem to make a difference. Our faith tells us we are required to plant the seeds, no matter how small they seem and then trust that God will grow them into what God has intended them to be.