Looking Through Love

Accept No Mediocre Life: Living Beyond Labels, Libels, and Limitations
by David Foster

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In Thornton Wilder's play Our Town, there is a scene in which a family is asleep in a cottage in the forest at dawn. The chimney smoke is having a conversation with the morning mist rising from the glade: "Do you think these people really know who they are?" And the smoke answers, "They wouldn't believe us if we told them. "We have difficulty wrapping our minds around some things. The cross of Christ is one of these things. But it is God's loving and ultimate statement of His idea of your worth.

An intriguing insight to Christ's attitude toward the Cross is revealed in these words: "He was willing to die a shameful death on the cross because of the joy he knew would be his afterwards"( Heb. 12:2 TLB). Max Lucado said it this way: "You aren't an accident. You weren't mass-produced. You aren't an assembly line product. You were deliberately planned, specifically gifted, and lovingly positioned on this earth by the Master Craftsman."2 If that is true, then what do we see when we look through a lens of God's love?

Jesus told stories to help us grasp God's opinion of us. While teaching a large crowd, He said, "The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it, he hid it again, and then in his joy went and sold all he had and bought that field" (Matt. 13:44 NIV). Banks didn't exist in the first century. People buried their most valuable articles in the ground. To protect those valuables, the law stipulated that if you found a treasure scattered in a field, you could gather it up and keep it. If you dug up a container or chest with valuables in it, then it belonged to the land. In this story a man finds a treasure so great, he liquidates everything he has in order to buy the field.

He's interested not in the field, but in what's in the field. He wants the treasure, and he's willing to pay for it. Jesus held up this story as a lens through which we see a clearer picture of God's love for us. It is a sacrificial love. God loves you enough that He was willing to pay an awful price for the privilege. This is a far cry from the picture painted by those highlighting your lack of perfection. You are a treasure to be sought and bought. To God, your Creator and Savior, you are worth whatever He had to pay to love you. This is a far cry from what I heard in Sunday school or church.

Jesus continued the story by saying, "Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant looking for fine pearls. When he found one of great value, he went away and sold everything he had and bought it" (Matt. 13:45-46 NIV). Here God is the jewel merchant.

I've often wondered why Jesus used pearls in this story. Is there something in the nature of a pearl that parallels our nature? A pearl begins as a single grain of sand, which makes its way into an oyster shell. Once there, it penetrates the membrane, causing irritation.

The oyster secretes a milky white substance, which coats the grain of sand. Over time, this process is repeated until a pearl is produced. Even then, a diver has to go down and retrieve the oyster, open it up, and through trial and error, search until he finds the pearl. A pearl is hard to make and hard to find. Given the fact we tend to hide from God, I can see the parallels in the pearl story and my own. God seeks me and finds me. And when He finds me, I'm the winner.

This understanding was a real breakthrough as well as hang-up for me. Nobody pursued me. Nobody thought me worthy of praise. Yet here is God seeking me, paying a price to love me. This was and remains the greatest thought I've ever had. When Karl Barth, the famous German theologian, was asked what was the greatest theological concept he'd ever entertained, he said, "Jesus loves me this I know, for the Bible tells me so."

Jesus' third story was a fisherman's tale:" Once again, the kingdom of heaven is like a net that was let down into the lake and caught all kinds of fish. When it was full, the fishermen pulled it up on the shore. Then they sat down and collected the good fish in baskets, but threw the bad away" (Matt. 13:47-48 NIV). This story reminds me of a summer spent on my uncle Henry's farm. It was the summer I learned how to chop tobacco, drive a tractor, and use a fishing net. Early one evening, with the daily chores behind us, Uncle Henry, several hired hands, and I gathered at the big pond. We stretched a wide net with wooden poles across the surface of the water. As the net was dragged across the bottom, it became heavy. All six of us worked to drag the net over to the bank. I saw all kinds of little creatures hopping and flopping around in the net. There were small snakes, turtles, and slithery reptilian creatures I had never seen before. My uncle knew the ones to be kept from the ones to be thrown back. When Jesus said the fishermen collected the good and threw away the bad, I can still remember putting on gloves and trying to grab hold of the fish in the net.

God views us as a catch to be caught and kept. In these three stories, Jesus reveals God's new way of looking at us. It is the lens of love. Through this lens, each of us is a treasure, a prize, and a catch. This lens is a far cry from the labels that others stick on us. This information is new to some. Others of you know God loves you unconditionally, but you've allowed time and circumstance to cover the truth with a coat of beige indifference.

Former boxing writer Harold Conrad visited a women's prison with heavyweight fighter Muhammad Ali. "All the inmates lined up," wrote Conrad. "They were ooh-ing and aah-ing as Ali went along. There were some good-looking ones. But he kissed only the ugly ones." After they left the prison, Conrad asked the fighter to explain why he chose to kiss only those women. "Because no one ever kisses the ugly girls," he replied.3 What a graphic illustration of what Christ has done for us! He came to kiss the ugly and the unloved. Straight-A students get compliments, good athletes receive cheers, but average people don't attract much attention. They just tend to blend in with the woodwork. Everybody craves affirmation and affection. You were created in God's image to receive love and to give it away. Performance aside, people need to be noticed. They need pats on the back, smiles, and hugs. It's how we tell one another, "Hey, you're not alone!" It's how God uses other people to help us realize it's okay to be who we are without apology or compromise.

Copyright © 2005 by David Foster

About the Author

Dr. David Foster is founder and senior pastor of Bellevue Community Church in Nashville, Tennessee. He is known as a true street-smart communicator who uses humor and simple illustrations to help seker find God. He and his wife live in Nashville with their three daughters.