STOP JUDGING BASED ON APPEARANCES…IT’S ONLY A SHELL!

What if we never opened the shell?

What if all of life was about the outside?  The shell so to speak that things and people are wrapped up in?

OH YIKES AND YUK TO THE THOUGHT OF THAT!

Think about an amazing cutie (or seedless mandarin orange).  Can you imagine NEVER peeling back the shell it is in to enjoy the beautiful delicious, satisfying smell and taste of the orange itself?  What if we looked at them all and thought we knew what it was just from looking at it and NEVER OPENING IT!

What an absolute travesty that would be!

It is the EXACT SAME THING WITH PEOPLE!

What if our whole life we walked around looking at the outside, the surface and never got close enough to peel back the layers and look, listen, and really see what is on the inside?  

What happens if all we are is a shell?  Then the inside would just be robotics and it wouldn’t matter.  In that case, I guess it wouldn’t matter if we all looked different or the same.  BUT WE DO AND WE ARE SO DIFFERENT AND BEAUTIFUL AND AMAZING!

I have been so blessed by so many beautiful souls in my life that God has been gracious to shower me with this side of heaven.  I don’t recall their clothes or makeup or anything like that, but I recall their laugh…their outrageous or quiet personality, their gentle or unique way of seeing the world, and most of all the core of what makes them so unique, and here’s a hint…it’s not the shell they are in.

Don’t we all long on the inside deep where only God can see to be truly seen?  To be wholly accepted?  Do you ache as I do for the full and true acceptance of just being enough to be welcomed only as who I am?  The great news is that God fills that need, but even greater, that He can give us a new lens to see others through as well that can open up worlds and change paradigms! 

1 Samuel 16:7 gives us such a great insight revealing what that lens should be, “But the Lord said to Samuel, “Do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature, because I have rejected him. For the Lord sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart.”

So, we can clearly see that strength of character and heart are the true measure of a man, the telling of who someone really is, and how we are to look at others.

THE HEAVENLY REALITY LENS

There is a different lens I now see people through.  I don’t necessarily notice their physical exterior.  I mean sure I notice it like OK you are wearing clothes kind of thing, but I am no longer impressed with any of it as it is all temporary anyway.  

I look in the eyes.  I notice their smile.  I notice the way their eyes twinkle when they talk about their spouse or loved one.  Maybe through all the pain, God has graciously granted me a lens of seeing souls instead of physical flesh and blood.

It’s super exciting because it’s like you are seeing the actual REAL WORLD  because that truly is what is really real anyway!!!

I’m not saying this is unique to me as I realize many people figured this out long before I have that’s for darn sure. I am the furthest thing from perfect you could ever hope to find!   And I am most certainly not the target to aim for nor am I claiming to be or want to be.  God’s got that title and I’m super pumped that He does!

Also, what’s so cool about it is that I have friends that I love with my whole heart of all ages and varieties of life.  I love so much that my friends don’t all have lives that look like mine and are so different.

Think about it for a moment.

BEING RECOGNIZABLE

If we love Jesus, we get to live FOREVER in Heaven with Him and all our brothers and sisters in Christ, right?  

But our heavenly bodies won’t look like our physical bodies.  So, if we don’t start seeing with heavenly eyes now, then how will we recognize each other?  

I mean check out this super powerful soul chilling and heart thrilling scripture from

1 Corinthians 15:51-53, “But let me reveal to you a wonderful secret. We will not all die, but we will all be transformed! It will happen in a moment, in the blink of an eye, when the last trumpet is blown. For when the trumpet sounds, those who have died will be raised to live forever. And we who are living will also be transformed.  For our dying bodies must be transformed into bodies that will never die; our mortal bodies must be transformed into immortal bodies.

If that doesn’t get you all goosebumpy, well I don’t know, but it does me!!!!!

Due to my time being an EMT, I have seen too many things at this point in my life to know way better than to look at the shell.  I have seen what the world would call drop-dead gorgeous people involved in serious burn accidents to never look remotely recognizable again, but their soul and who they are at their very core never changed.  Sometimes people stayed with them.  Sometimes people didn’t.  Yes, unfortunately, there are people who can’t get past the exterior..this temporary physical shell.  

I saw it with my own Mom after the car wreck that took her from being a triathlete to a C1 quadriplegic in the blink of an eye…certain people stopped coming and friendships fell away when some just couldn’t get past what her new life now looked like.  To be clear, 99% of her amazing friends DID stay, did support her, and were there way more than we could have ever hoped for, so it’s definitely not the majority I am referring to here, but it does happen.

The physical appearance is only a shell.  We have to have something more than that to offer.  And, it can drastically change at any moment.  It can be deceiving as well.  Guard your heart and search for real beauty by looking much deeper.

I really hope and angst to have more to me than the outside (which isn’t much anyway ha!).  I know that I struggled with that in school because I had that nasty acne growing up that just made me miserable and I was tormented in school about it.  I always kept thinking, but I’m not walking around with a mirror looking at myself.  If it were up to me until I saw myself in the morning and at night getting up and going to bed, I wouldn’t know it was there, but the kids wouldn’t let me forget it.

FLIP THE NARRATIVE AND PARADIGM INSIDE OUT

What if we take that and flip it on its head. 

What if we don’t let each other forget the beauty that we see deep inside.  I want so badly to have something so special inside that radiates outwardly so that no matter my age, physical appearance, or earthly condition, there is beauty, true beauty radiating in a passion for life and Jesus.

Let’s go BE THAT LIGHT that the world so desperately needs!!

I do have to tell you something though.  I tend to go a bit overboard and truly tell people what I think.  People need to know they matter.  This social media world has made people even more image conscience and the focus and spotlight are on that.  But, what if that goes away.  What if we all wrote words or sang songs or painted art or did whatever it is we do and no one ever knew what we looked like?  

Would you be able to tell those people, that you didn’t know what they looked like, that you loved them?  Would you be able to see their beauty and know that they are one of the most beautiful people in all the world simply because they exist.  Simply because they have made you a better person for who they are and how they have graced your life with their presence and love.

Would you be comfortable enough in your own skin without the selfies and filters and manicured moments to bare your soul and let that be enough?  Would you be willing to come alongside others not knowing ahead of time what they looked like?  

Good grief…..aaaahhhh….I could write so much more on this and the rhythm of my keyboard is going nuts right now cause I just wanna jump through this screen and grab you by your beautiful face and look into your soul and tell you, in case you don’t already know, just how absolutely beautiful and special you are.

May your day be filled with blessings and encouragement and may you know that you are valid and needed and there is no one in the history of the world that has ever lived or no one that ever will live that could be you, no matter what you look like!!

I am going to share something with you that I tell my children if they are having a rough day feeling as if they “aren’t enough or measuring up” according to the world’s standards.  “There may always be someone prettier than you, smarter than you, more gifted than you in certain areas, but guess what?  Not one single solitary one of them can BE YOU!!!”

“THEY ARE COMPLETELY ONE THOUSAND PERCENT INCAPABLE OF BEING YOU!!!!”

So, today, go seek out ways to tell those people that are constantly impacting your life just how special they are to you and how they have made an impression in who you are.  You can CLICK HERE to read more about why kindness so desperately matters!

And, if you are knowing me in the real-life and I bug you with telling you how special you are to me, and my passion for life gets on your nerves, just tell me, I can take it.  I do love you though!

Comment below with things you have discovered by putting on the heavenly reality lens!  Click here for a massive set of FREE CUSTOM inspirational PRINTABLES and check out our FREEBIE section while you are there!