Sometimes I think God gets confused. Take a look at King David. The Lord called this king a man after his own heart, yet David committed adultery, lied to his people, murdered one of his men, and didn’t score too high for the Parent of the Year award.

According to God, Abraham stands as a man of unwavering faith, although Abraham looks pretty wavering to me—he fathered a son born of doubt, lied about his wife, and played the master deceiver when it suited his purposes.

Why on earth did Jesus leave the family business to twelve guys who fought among themselves, struggled with pride, and abandoned him when he needed their support the most?

If these guys were around today they would be discounted and disqualified by the rest of us—definitely not “spiritual” people. Yet in God’s book, they rank pretty high.

So what is it about our “people lens” that differs from God’s? Why do we tend to judge and devalue people when God doesn’t do that? Why do we focus on the negative in people rather than the positive? What does God see in people that we don’t? What does God see in us that we don’t?

I think it has a lot to do with love and grace. We value and appreciate these qualities, but we don’t understand them. Not only does God understand grace and love, but he is love and grace. Therefore, his “people lens” reflects who he is.

None of us likes to be on the receiving end of a person’s judgment, yet we do not hesitate to state our negative opinion of others—as if we understand their life and struggles! In the Backward Kingdom, people are viewed through the lens of love and grace, not the lens of how they are measuring up according to our expectations.

What are you missing in people by viewing them through the lens of expectations? What are you missing by viewing yourself this way? What might you see by looking through God’s lens of grace and love?

In Him together, Susan Gaddis