Eye of the Beholder!

This is how much God loved the world; He gave His Son, His one and only Son that whosoever believes in Him shall not die but have everlasting life. John 3:16

Several weeks ago I was put on a steroid regime by my doctor to try and cure a persistent sinus infection. The dosage was higher than I had ever had before, but I set my mind to riding it out until the end in hopes of feeling better. For anyone who hasn’t taken steroids before, they effect different people in different ways. For instance, the use of steroids can cause difficulty sleeping, mood swings, aggression or even depression. However, on the positive side, they do provide relief from aching muscles, backaches, and they give most people a boost in their energy level!

I tried to look at the twelve days of steroids as a tempoary relief from minor achy muscles, and a chance to use my boost of energy to get things done that I would normally put off. I looked at it as a good thing. I also found myself a little bit empowered. I began to say exactly how I felt at certain times, and I didn’t mind speaking out on subjects. I was enjoying the new me. It was about this time in the treatment that Randy went into hiding remaking that “Those things make you mean!” It’s all in the eye of the beholder.

Eye of the beholder is a phrase that means “something that is a matter of personal opinion.” It was shortened from the aphorism beauty is in the eye of the beholder which means, beauty does not exist on its own, but is created by observers. For example, one might say this to mean not all people have the same idea of what is attractive or what is important.

Wemher von Braun was a German-American aerospace engineer and space architect. He was a pioneer of rocket and space technology in the United States. Even though his past was widely controversial, he became an American citizen in 1955, accepted citizenship wholeheartedly, and is sometimes described as “the father of space travel.” He said, “There has never been any great accomplishment in history without faith.”

Contrast that statement with the following event. In 1961, the Soviet Union sent the first cosmonaut into space. When he returned, Nikita Kruschev declared “the Russians have been to space and didn’t see a God anywhere there!” About ten months later, the U.S. sent John Glenn into space. He circled the earth three times and returned to say, “I saw God everywhere. I saw His glory in the galaxy, His splendor in the universe, and I saw His majesty in the stars.” It’s all in the eye of the beholder.

There are many occasions when I find that the physical appearance of someone is not indicative of their beauty. My Mama always said, “Beauty is only skin deep”, and I totally agree. It is the heart of a person which speaks most often to me. For example, there was a nurse who cared for patients in an assisted living facility. The nurse was a rather large woman with a perpetual tired and sad demeanor. One day as she was helping an older resident, the woman looked up and said, “My, but you are a pretty thing!” The nurse blushed and said, “That is so kind, but not many people see that in me!” The woman replied, “Well, that’s just nonsense. I see a beautiful woman who has a kind heart.” It’s all in the eye of the beholder.

God sent His only son to this world because in each of us He beheld a person worthy of taking on all our sin, and He paid our debt. The question then is, “How much are we worth? What is this sacrifice worth to us?”

Occasionally, we watch the TV series, Pawn Stars. People bring in their treasures and expect to get a high price for them. The owners will bring in an expert to appraise the value of each object, and come back to the owners with exactly what the item is worth. Let’s say the expert says the item is worth $10,000. The owner will turn to the customer and ask, “What do you want for this piece?” The owner almost always says, “I want exactly what the expert says it’s worth.” Most often, the owners come back with, “Well, I will give you what I think it’s worth. It’s not worth that much to me.” An object is only worth what someone will pay. It’s all in the eye of the beholder.

The Bible says that each of us is worth the blood of Jesus Christ. We are worth so much that He gave the most valuable thing He could offer – His son. We are the beneficiary of a vast inheritance. God sees us as worthy of eternal life, and in His eyes, we are beheld as worth the price He paid.