There is an inherent beauty in each human being that may at first be difficult to see; a sort of optical illusion that we have to train ourselves to recognize.

There will be times when I am observing or interacting with people and something will happen that is difficult to explain. It is as if a veil has been lifted, or my eyes have been opened in a way they were not before. And it dawns on me how incredibly beautiful this person is.
It’s like waking from one of those dreams where you think you’re awake, and then realize that it has all been only a dream. And now that you really are awake, you wonder how you could have confused your dream with reality.
It doesn’t matter who the person is, either. It can be a cantankerous old man, an obese woman, or a rock star completely sold to the ways of this world and eagerly allying herself with the powers of darkness. The actual physical qualities and spiritual state of the person have no consequence to the beauty that they bear. It is as if I’m seeing the picture the Artist had in His mind’s eye when He started painting.

My Grandpa is drawing near the end of his life. His body is slowly dying, slowly withering away; returning to the dust from whence he was formed. His mind is not what it used to be. He gets confused easily, has trouble counting money and telling time; his memories blur into each other so things that happened two years ago or last summer, he remembers as happening only a day or two ago.
Over Christmas break I drove up to Coleman to help my Grandma around the house, and to visit with my Grandpa so she could nap. Grandpa dozed off in his armchair in front of the TV.

I watched him sleep, taking in all that time and old age had done to him. He was old and fragile. His skin was shriveled and dry, displaying his blue green veins in high relief. His eyes were sunk deep into his head, and his face was covered by a snow white beard.
His feet were swollen and scabbed from poor blood flow and had to be bandaged and treated two or three times a week.
I felt very sad.

And yet, as I sat there watching him sleep, it dawned on me how now, more than ever, I loved him. Now, as he sat there crippled and broken- worn out and shriveled, barely more than skin and bones, he was the most beautiful he had ever been.
Before, he had just been “Grandpa.” Witty, clever, Baptist, aggravatingly stubborn- Grandpa.

But now, he was more than that. Something about this decrepit state now, revealed to me the beauty of who he really was- the Awe-Inspiring Creation of God. But even that doesn’t seem to communicate who I saw him as without fully grasping what it actually means. And that is impossible to do. Think of God.

Try to fathom all that he is. Try to understand who He is. Get lost in Him. And then understand how I felt when i understood that my Grandpa is one loved by God.

There is another event similar to this that happened about a week prior that I want to tell to further illustrate what I’m trying to say.

I was messing around with some of my co-workers. I made some joke about one of them and clapped him on the shoulder.
In that brief moment of contact, lasting less than a second, I realized that he was more than I had taken him for.

C.S. Lewis wrote, “There are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal.”
Our brief exchange brought this into extreme focus. I pulled away from his as if I’d been burned.

I think the physical and spiritual are deeply entwined. I walked away from that encounter strangely shaken. I don’t really know how to describe it. I don’t know the how or the why. But I know in that moment when I touched him, I got a brief glimpse of God. Or perhaps I saw him as God sees him. Maybe those are the same thing.

When Michelangelo began painting and sculpting nude figures, his teacher asked him why. Michelangelo’s response was, “I want to see people the way the God sees them.” His teacher responded, “But you are not God.”
And yet, the point, though well worthy of thought, was ultimately mute. Michelangelo thought that if he would strip man of his raiment of garments, he would be looking at man as God does.
But he was thinking as a mere mortal. He was thinking of flesh and tissue and everything that will fade, die, and decay. In First Samuel 16:7, God tells Samuel, “The Lord sees not as man see; for man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart.” (ESV)

God looks deeper than flesh and bone. He sees beyond our physical raiment to the soul within. He sees who we really are.

And when I’m looking to Him, I begin to truly see people the way He does. I see a beauty far deeper and far greater, than any physical beauty. I see God in those around me. I see His image in the eyes of every person I meet. I feel his breath flowing through every person I touch. And I understand their worth.

Each and every one of us is endowed with irrevocable worth independent of social status, personal achievement, spiritual maturity, physical appearance, or any other factor apart from God. Every human being has been created in His image.

Someone once asked Jesus if it was right to pay taxes to Caesar, when the money could be better used by God. Jesus asked them for a coin and then asked who’s image is on it. The questioner answered that it is Caesar’s image upon the coin. Jesus responded thus, “Give to Caesar what is Caesar’s and to God that which is God’s.” Ravi Zacharias laments that the questioner did not then ask what it was that belonged to God, explaining the latent point of Christ’s statement: “Who’s image is on you?”

The very fact that we are created in God’s image is one that grants so much worth to each individual it is astounding. And yet our worth goes so much deeper than even that great depth- God loves us. Again, think of God. Try to fathom all that He is. Try to understand who He is. Get lost in the wonder of it all. And then try to put a label to your worth. Stand in awe of the knowledge that you are one whom God loves.