Portraits
How do you see other people? Do you see them are they really are or are you ever mistaken about them? After meeting someone for the first time do you sometimes try to figure out who they really are? If you know someone very well you probably can get very descriptive in characterizing who they are to someone else. What we are really doing is putting together a portrait of who they are in our minds. If someone else also knows them in a different way, they might describe them in an entirely different manner.
My grandson Will drew a portrait of me; you can see it to the right of this page. After viewing it, I didn't know whether to laugh or cry or be flattered or depressed with what he had drawn. (I think it makes me look a lot like a scarecrow…don’t you?)
As you can see I don't look very beautiful, but my grandson was quick to point out several reasons why it looked like me. First there was a smile on my face, second I had on a large necklace and finally I have long fingers.
I see a couple of other things that might be significant. The hands are big--I hope that means that my hands are used to be helpful. My body shape is kind of like a heart--do you see the resemblance? Maybe that means I'm filled with love.
My grandson drew me to the best of his ability and I actually love it, because it tells me that he cares enough about me to even attempt to capture me on paper.
Every day we too draw pictures of people in our minds; and sometimes what we come up with is not at all the true representation of them. We make them out to be grouchy or manipulative or unfair or even unlovable when that's not the way God sees them at all. Or maybe we seem the as happy when behind closed doors they are really hurting. Someone who comes across as aloof may really just be shy. And those who appear to be successful might really be in deep debt.
When we look at others we should put on our God lenses. We need to look for the ways that they are like God; after all, everyone is made in His image. Some people might be easy to spot God’s characteristics while others might be more difficult and we might have to dig deep to find something, but it is there.
Genesis 1:26 Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.”
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