October 11th

Being somewhat of a car buff, you can understand that my “Desktop,” the picture that appears on my computer’s screen when it’s just sitting idly by waiting for something to happen, is a picture of a rather nice luxury car. It is not, however, a normal picture. You see, it is what’s known as an x-ray picture of the car and while it’s in colour and not exactly in black and white as normally associated with that type of image, it does nevertheless reveal all the internal mechanical bits and workings of this beautiful vehicle.
Not only is it a rather pleasant thing to look at, it’s also a fascinating thing to ponder, not only the engineer’s genius in creating the real car, but also the artist’s ability to draw all the internal components in a way that keeps the original lines and beauty of the car, but also lets us peek into all the parts that make it tick. It takes both incredible artistry and a thorough knowledge of mechanics to perform such a feat. It must also take a real appreciation and love of the subject in order for the artist to make all the effort and to pull it off in a way that is both pleasing and challenging to car buffs and, dare I say it, to those who just like good art.
God has an intimate knowledge of what makes us tick, not just in a mechanical, flesh and bones kind of way, but also of the very heart and inner workings of our soul. Given this perfect knowledge, only God can fully appreciate the wonders of a human being. No one else can fully know the intricate workings of body and soul as our Creator does.
That’s a bit of a problem. Without that full understanding or appreciation I don’t think we can treat each other or ourselves the way we should. Despite our apparently strong bones, we can’t fully appreciate how delicate a human being can be; because of the faltering first steps of a baby, we can’t see the true grace that is involved in that learning process; despite the stiff upper lip presented by some, we can’t appreciate how frail the ego is; because of our tendency to make light of things, we can’t understand how deep a love we have for those with whom we share a laugh.
Perhaps we can learn to look at each other differently; perhaps we can learn to look beyond our skin and see to the soul that lies beneath. It’s not that hard: all it takes is to look at each other with the same eyes of love that God has for us. All it takes for us to see each other in all our glory is to remember that we were made in God’s perfect image, and that we were created not as slaves or luxury objects, but as God’s children. There can be nothing more wonderful than to be recognized as a child of God. I also think that there can be no more God-honoring thing than to recognize those around us as beautiful and amazing fellow children in whom we can see not only the wonders of humanity, but of God. At last that’s the way I see it.