He's very fond of me

When asked who is the most important person on earth, most might answer that it is the President of the United States of America. Do we not call the occupant of that chair as "The Most Powerful Man on Earth"? Christians could possibly point to some Minister who is seen to be powerfully anointed of God, as most important. We find from the Bible that 'the greatest prophet of all times' Samuel was no exception either. When asked to anoint a son of Jesse as the 2nd King of Israel, he considered the appearance and height of Eliab the eldest and thought he was the Lord's anointed to be Israel's King. He had to be reminded by God, "The Lord does not look at the things man looks at. Man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart". Even Jesse who had been instructed by Samuel to assemble his sons and join him for a sacrifice to the Lord, had made the same mistake. While he called his first 7 sons for the worship, he did not consider his youngest son important and had left him to continue to tend the sheep. How radically opposite are our outlook comapred to our Lord's. Here is David, the youngest and the despised in the family away tending sheep and God has Samuel waiting to receive him so he could anoint him as King.

Very few people in this world look at it in the same way that the Lord looks. There are very few like Teresa who said, "I see God in every human being. When I wash the leper's wounds I feel I am nursing the Lord himself". Teresa could see God the Creator in every neglected person who had been created in the image of God. She could do so because she had come to share the Lord's burden for the lowly

Let's look at some of the civilian laws that God had given the nation of Israel through Moses, that will help us get a ringside view of his concern for the poor.

• 'When you reap the harvest of your land, do not reap to the very edges of your field or gather the gleanings of your harvest. Do not go over your vineyard a second time or pick up the grapes that have fallen. Leave them for the poor and the alien." (Lev 19:9,10)


• At the end of every seven years you must cancel debts. . . Every creditor shall cancel the loan he has made to his fellow Israelite. He shall not require payment from his fellow Israelite or brother . . . you must cancel any debt your brother owes you. (Deu 15:1-3)


• Do not take advantage of a hired man who is poor and needy, whether he is a brother Israelite or an alien living in one of your towns. Pay him his wages each day before sunset, because he is poor and is counting on it. (Deu 24:14,15)

Look at the Lord's heart. It can clearly be seen in 2 verses in Deuteronomy 15. Ver 4 says "There should be no poor among you." If the rich would take care of the poor and needy, realizing that God's riches are not meant for their individual use but have been given them in their capacity as Stewards, there would not be any poor. The world wants to make the poor still poorer through their debts and Credit cards but God had wanted the old nation of Israel to cancel the poor's debts. Ver 11 says "There will always be poor people in the land." As long as we are on this fallen earth, there will be poverty and prosperity side by side. It is the Lord's will that his Stewards will administer the riches in their hands generously and alleviate poverty. He told the Israelites that they are to deal this way with the poor because He is the Lord their God (Lev 19:10) -- God of both the poor and the rich. How often we forget this and live as if God is on the side of the rich? What a different place this world will be, if we will begin to see like God sees?

We considered how our 'outward look' at the world should be. Let us now see how our 'inward look' - the way we look at ourselves - should be. What should our identity be -- our profession, our prosperity or our family connections? Philip Yancey in his book 'What's So Amazing About Grace' quotes Brennan Manning "If John were to be asked, 'What is your primary identity in life ?' he would not reply, 'I am a disciple, an apostle, an evangelist, an author of one of the four Gospels,' but rather, 'I am the one Jesus loves.'" Brennan Manning also tells the story of an Irish priest who, on a walking-tour of a rural parish, sees an old peasant kneeling by the side of the road, praying. Impressed, the priest says to the man, "You must be very close to God." The peasant looks up from his prayers, thinks a moment, and then smiles, "Yes, He's very fond of me".

Irrespective of who we are - rich or poor, educated or illiterate, high or low - will our identity be that "I am the one Jesus loves"? That will keep us from pride as well as from self-pity. Some of us could need the humbling that this identity brings while others could need the encouragement. Again, for some of us there could be times of success when we need to be brought to our senses that there is nothing we can do to earn God's love, and other times of failure when we need this encouragement that there is nothing we can do to make us lose his love. Jesus loves me because he created me in His own image. How comforting this is !