Inner Beauty

I had an odd sort of thought today about how God views us, but I'm not sure I can adequately express what I have been thinking. Sometimes when I have visited my father in law's house, and his dogs have greeted me, when I return home, my own dog is fascinated by the smells on my clothing. My husband often reminds me that dogs can smell like people can see. Their ability to smell is so much greater than a human's, that we can't even begin to understand how powerful smells are for them.

In conjunction with this thought, I was reminded today that God doesn't look at our physical appearance the same way we do. I think we, as humans, view some people as beautiful, and others as ugly. It all really is subjective to the culture that we live in. In the Asian culture, for example, they focus on facial structure. In years past a woman's beauty was defined by the smallness of her feet. In the middle east, a woman's hair defines her beauty.

As I was pondering these thoughts, it occurred to me that God's ability to see our inner beauty is much like our dogs' ability to smell. He can see things that we could never see. In fact, I would dare say that the outer beauty is very low on His list of important things. I was reminded of this verse in 1 Samuel Chapter 16 verse 7. Samuel was trying to find the person that should be annointed King. He chose who he thought would be best, but God told him to choose David instead. David was young, and not trained to be a King, but God rejected the one man, and told Samuel to annoint David. The Lord said to Samuel, "....Look not on his countenance, or on the height of his stature; because I have refused him: for the LORD seeth not as man seeth; for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the Lord looketh on the heart."

I told once before on this blog about my friend who had very beautiful daughters. They were cute and blonde, and thought the whole world should fall at their feet. She said of them, "They think they are so cute, but I gave them that! They didn't do anything to make them look the way they do!." Not only do we not have control over how beautiful we are, we also don't have control over how ugly we are. But we can control our inner beauty.

I wish I had that ability to see the inner beauty and inner person. I wish I had that "sense" to help me look beyond the physical. I think if we could see who others are on the inside, we would treat them much more carefully, and with more respect.