Let's not pretend otherwise. Our Father made us as very visual beings.
We notice. The symmetry of a face draws us in. It pauses us in a crowded room. Physical fitness, strength, the way someone carries themselves, we are attracted to it. There is nothing sinful in noticing beauty. Our true Creator Himself, made the eye to delight in what He has made.
But if we stop there, we will miss the person.
I have learned this over a lifetime of sitting across from people. Form may catch the eye, but it will never hold the heart. The depth we are all longing for is not found in form. It is found in substance, in spirit and in character.
Samuel learned this the hard way. When he went to anoint a new king, he kept looking at the tall, handsome sons (most notably, Absalom). And the L-rd had to remind him, "People look at the outward appearance, but the L-rd looks at the heart." 1 Samuel 16:7. We still need that reminder.
Because here is what I have seen with eyes to see:
Most times, even the most damaged of souls still reveals its inner, brilliant and innocent Light.
I mean that. The soul that has been abused, addicted, angry, abandoned - cover it with enough pain and you would think the light went out. It hasn't. The Light that Christ put in there from the beginning is still there. It may be buried under years of defense and disappointment, but in a quiet moment, when they think no one is watching, you see it. A flash of kindness. A moment of honest grief. A tenderness they cannot hide.
It takes eyes to see it. Eyes that are not looking for perfection, but looking for the person God originally created.
And it takes ears to hear. This is where love becomes labor.
Enduring love is not just a feeling that falls on you. It is work. The kind of love Paul talks about in 1 Corinthians 13 - the love that bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things - that love remains under the weight with someone.
Anyone can love when it is easy to love. But to retain patience when the story is told for the tenth time? To keep understanding when someone retreats back into old patterns? To listen not to correct, but to truly comprehend where they have been?
That is a labor of love. And few have achieved this yet.
Why? Because it costs us; it costs our need to be right, our need for quick results, and our need for comfort. Our flesh wants quick judgment. Our spirit is invited into slow truth.
But friends, this is the love that Jesus has shown us. He did not love our form. He loved our substance when there was very little in our form to admire. He saw that brilliant Light in us when we could not see it ourselves, and He stayed. He endured.
If we will ask Him for His eyes and His ears, we can learn to love that way too. Not just attracted to the outside, but committed to the inside. Not just moved for a moment, but remaining for a lifetime.
That is the endurance of love. And that is the love which never fails,
Pastor Mark