a new set of eyes

Sunday June 17^th, 2 Corinthians 5: We are careful not to judge people by what they seem to be, though we once judged Christ in that way. Anyone who belongs to Christ is a new person. The past is forgotten, and everything is new.  It’s not just a new set of clothes, or a new haircut, but it is a newness that comes from within, a newness that comes from above, a newness that permeates through the very essence of our being.  It is easy to get caught up in the judging game, to see others as we want to see them.  The church is full of hypocrites, tis true, but they are not the hypocrites they used to be, nor are they the hypocrites they will be.  It is a process, ongoing, lifelong, and filled with different paths for different people.  What a blessing it would be to see others as God sees them, filled with potential, rather than the way the world sees them, filled with everything they have ever done wrong judged from the narrow point of view of observer trying so hard not to see their own garbage by looking at the faults of others.   Perhaps a part of being made new means getting a new set of eyes for ourselves, so that as we look around we see the glory of God’s creation in one another as well as the reality of ourselves and cry out with our Lord, Yes, it is good.