It was one of those "photo-articles" that regularly appear in my on-line newspaper. It referred to many female celebrities of screen and stage from the days when I was a much younger man!! I browsed through them, and was genuinely surprised at the change in appearance of so many! Women who, forty years ago, I would have considered to be very attractive, even beautiful, were - in my eyes - no longer so!
I didn't need either old photographs, or contemporary ones, of another female - one who is well-known to me. I refer, of course, to my wife! Now, she has certainly changed in her appearance through the intervening years. However, to me, she is still a beautiful woman and, even after more than forty-eight years of marriage, I still fancy her!
So what makes the difference? Permit me to come at the question from a slightly different direction. If I were to stand my wife, as she is now, beside (for example) Jaclyn Smith, as she was when she played the part of one of "Charlie's Angels", and judge them against one another, in a totally objective fashion, then there is no doubt that the early Jaclyn Smith would win the contest. But it's that word "objective" that makes the difference.
You see, I don't look at my wife in an objective fashion. I look at her through the eyes of love. If I look at Jaclyn Smith, as she was (or any of the others in that batch of women) I am, if I am totally honest with myself, looking through the eyes of lust! However, I might say that I don't love my wife, today, because of how she looks. Rather, she looks to me as she does, because of my love for her! Do you understand the difference?!
We may use that situation as an analogy. When Almighty God looks at me, just as I am, He cannot see anything in me that He would find "attractive". Yet I am assured that He loves me, with "... an everlasting love." (Jer. 31:3). I am assured that "... God so loved the world [that includes me - and you!] that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have [note the present tense!] eternal life." (John 3:16). I am assured "... that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate [me] from the love of God in Christ Jesus [my] Lord." (Rom 8:38-39).
He looks at me, not objectively, but through the eyes of love! But how can this be? It's simply because, in repentance and faith, I have accepted the salvation that the Christ Whose miraculous incarnation we have just celebrated, won for me on the cross of Calvary when "For [my] sake He [the Father] made Him [the Son] to be sin who knew no sin, so that in Him [I] might become the righteousness of God." (II Cor 5:21; emphasis added). It's nothing of 'me'; it's all of Him!
As we approach the end of this year of grace, and anticipate the beginning of a new year, how does Father God see you? Is He able to look at you, and see that your sins are forgiven because of the atoning sacrifice of the Lord Jesus? Or are you living in your sin - perhaps trying to win God's favour by what you consider to be 'good deeds'?
Many, many years ago, I made the only "new year resolution" that I have managed to keep for more than a few months. It was the simple resolution that I would no longer make new year resolutions! However, if you still do so, and you are not yet in that personal relationship with the Lord Jesus, through the indwelling power of God the Holy Spirit, may I encourage you to come to Him - "... Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of our faith who, for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God." (Heb 12:2).
He is waiting; He is willing to receive you. Will you come to Him, today? If I may be of any assistance, please feel free to use the e-mail address at the top of the page; or send a contact e-mail address as a comment (that will not be published!); or check out some of the links further down the page. The one thing you must not do is nothing! "Behold, now is the acceptable time; behold, now is the day of salvation." (II Cor 6:2); "... how shall we escape if we neglect such a great salvation?" (Heb 2:3).
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