It's What's Inside

Neither do I condemn you. Go your way and do
not sin again. -John 8:11

I heard an old religious man
But yesterday declare
That he found a text to prove
That only God, my dear,
Could love you for yourself alone
And not your yellow hair?
-William Butler Yeats

The first quote is from scripture where Jesus forgave the woman caught in adultery. It was an act of unconditional love-soul love. The poet Yeats speaks of the same thing-looking beyond the exterior to the interior person.

There is a part of psychology that deals with becoming a self-actualized person. Such a person is so comfortable with themselves that they do notice appearances but see only the unfolding of God in each person they encounter. I must confess that I have known very few such people over the years. Most of us will notice the yellow hair-whether it is styled or not. We'll notice the earrings and their placement or whether they are dressed properly for the occasion.
Jesus asks us to look beyond that. He looks into the soul of the woman and sees something that is lovely in spite of her unlovely circumstances. It is so with each of us-even when our souls are not what we would wish, God looks into each of us and as St. Augustine wrote, loves us as though we were the only one to be loved.

Each one of us desperately wants to reach a point of being our actual self, at least before God, that we can experience what being loved for our self alone is like. I would imagine when we truly experience that it will be less of a challenge loving others for themselves alone and perhaps less difficult tackling whatever the challenge before us may be.

Prayer
God of grace so let me set before you my soul with all of its light and dark hues that I may experience this day your love for me, meet the challenge that is before me, and so seek to love others in the name of Jesus the Christ. Amen.

Mac Hamon, Senior Pastor
Castleton United Methodist Church
Indianapolis, Indiana