In God's eyes

When I first thought about this topic, it was more out of following the theme than as a real post. That was about two months ago.

Now, however, I really want to write about this topic; I am not doing this out of duty, as I originally would have, but out of a sense of sharing, for I realised something I was not originally aware until only recently. This is not to say that I had no knowledge of it at all, but what goes on in the mind and what goes on in the heart are two completely different things.

Here goes.

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People say that first impressions are always the biggest. So when we go for interviews, we dress up to look our best. We make sure that we don’t have a body odour, and that if we do, we “take care” of it. Even when we go out with a group of friends, we dress up, wanting to look our best. The reason for all of this is because we want to make sure we make the right impressions, and give out the correct messages when we go out.

Part of our survival as a species is being able to tell that which is safe from that which is not. Our instincts have not only expanded to our food and where we set foot, but to other people as well. We judge people as they come our way. As we aren’t in mortal danger from being butchered by someone all the time, it is less our physical health we are concerned about, but more our social health.

The first thing we do when we see a person is judge him or her. Sometimes, when we hear that he or she does something less “desirable” or doesn’t do something “desirable”, we stereotype the said person. He or she is either not “cool” enough or too “dangerous”. We keep our distance from them and we see them as inferior to us. Being with them, or even just being associated with them, is thought of as detrimental to our social standing; being associated with someone not “cool” enough makes us look bad among friends, while being associated with someone too “dangerous” often gets us in trouble with our elders and our family.

We try to tell those who are “safe” from those who are “unsafe”, but without talking to them first, we are only able to judge people by the way they look. So comes what is known as prejudice, which is taken from “pre-judge”. We develop prejudices towards other people as we grow up, a result of our experiences and what we have been taught by our elders. We judge people by the colour of their skin, the clothes that they wear, the accessories they have, the people they hang out with and the things they do. Sometimes, we judge correctly; certain people do or wear certain things to make a statement. They want to be heard or seen doing it. Other times, things are not so simple. Nevertheless, we choose to look only on the surface before passing judgement.

However, when Christ came down to earth, he did not choose who He interacted with or who He loved based on their physical appearance or association. He talked to “sinners”, those who did not follow the Jewish law, and he talked to the Pharisees and the Sadducees, the teachers of the Torah, well versed in it. He interacted with those considered too bad to be considered to be on par with everyone else, but He also interacted with those who considered themselves above everyone else. He did not choose to stay away from people because they were not good company, or did not support his cause; instead, He reached out to them.

Christ interacted with both Jews and Gentiles. It was not possible back then for a Jew to marry a Gentile under certain situations, but the greatest difference was that the Jews were God’s people, set aside by God, while the Gentiles weren’t. As Christ came down to die for all people, He did not differentiate Jew from Gentile. He even drank from the utensils of a Gentile woman once.

Christ, too, told us to love our neighbours as we love ourselves, and said that this even extended to our enemies. Indeed, everyone who is loved would reciprocate, but the ability to love someone without any response is what really brings the best out of everyone concerned. The person who has to initiate contact has to find the strength to do so, while in the end, the person who receives it is able to grow, as he or she knows that he or she is not alone in this world.

When we see a person for the first time, what do we see most about him or her? And what do we do about our “knowledge”? Do we pass judgement on a person immediately? Do we look at a person’s piercings and get turned off immediately? Do we look at how a person dresses and bring out the fashion police inside of us? Do we watch a person’s actions, and from there, decide whether he or she is worth interacting with or whether he or she is not worth our time?

We normally do.

But not everyone does what they do out of choice. There is always a choice, but sometimes, this is the lesser of the two evils. The other alternative might be much less desirable for everyone involved. So people get involved with things which we cringe our noses at and speak in ways which even the least conservative of us would disapprove. But without getting to know them, we have no idea as to why they are in such a situation.

When we stretch out our hand to them, and show that we care, regardless of whether they are the downtrodden, or the oppressed, or the poor, regardless of whether they are poor materialistically, in the spirit or in other ways, we show that we care, and we give them a chance to change. By not stretching our hand out to them, we drive into them the desire to not to change. Sometimes people will just stay the way they are to spite us, and force us to accept them.

Sometimes we do the same.

But in spite of all this, everyone is good on the inside. In spite of what we wear, say, do or who we choose to interact with, people are good on the inside. When we allow our prejudices towards people to get in our way of truly knowing them, we deny ourselves a chance to get to know them better, and a chance for them to change. We deny ourselves a chance to change someone for the better.

When people sleep, everyone looks the same. Even the biggest gangster on the block looks like an innocent kid all over again. People have different styles and positions while sleeping, but that doesn’t mean that we are all that different – we are all very much the same, as when we sleep, we dream, and we become the small kid we once were.

In God’s eyes, everyone was and is equal. No one is more deserving than the rest, and no one is less deserving than the rest. Sure, even Christ left when things got too hot for Him (except at the garden of Gethsemane, but that’s another story) , only an insane person would hang around when there are people threatening one’s life, but He did what He did, without prejudice towards other people.