I was enjoying a Hope College Repertory Theater production of Driving Miss Daisy last week when a statement by Hoke, the black chauffeur for a white Jewish woman, made me sit up straighter.He explained to Miss Daisy, “You can’t see what I see unless you look through my eyes.” I suspect that statement is the hidden, but bold, truth behind the many divisions – political, religious, and moral – today in American society. And I am discouraged by my suspicion that most people have no interest in looking through other peoples’ eyes to gain a better perspective on the realities of our world.

Even more important than trying to imagine the world through the eyes of the people who share our planet is our willingness to look at the world through God’s eyes. We can learn what God’s eyes see through Scripture and in the life of Jesus.  How do God’s eyes see the world? 

God’s eyes see the physical world as the garden that physically and emotionally supports the lives of the people who God created – not as a playground to be used and abused at will.

God’s eyes see children as precious bundles of love and curiosity, eager to live, love, and learn – not as helpless victims to be abused or as miniature adults expected to make their parents proud or as throwaways in the rages of terrorism or as “”unintended victims” by corporations who destroy their homelands in an never-ending search for to fulfill their greed.

God’s eyes see people of all shapes and colors and gender as his beautiful children created in his image and capable of inventive and imaginative lives – not as inferior goods to be ignored or mistreated by individuals and political systems.

God’s eyes see the lives of his creation as amazing adventures of love, growth, faith, and possibility – not as boring days survivable only by self-aggrandizement or self-medicating.

God’s eyes see God’s kingdom as a place where reverence and faith, grace and forgiveness, mercy and justice make every life valuable – not as a place where the strongest, richest, and most selfish win.

As apprentices of Jesus, we must wake up everyday motivated to look through God’s eyes into the lives of our families, our neighbors, our fellow employees and employers – especially those who are different from us. Being different doesn’t mean being less or being subservient or forgettable. God’s creative genius exploded into being in the entire universe. We are diminished – and disobedient – if we pretend we know better than God and reject any of his handiwork.