Life-spark: God is looking at you through the lens of your potential in Christ.
There is a certain gesture where a person points to himself, then points two fingers at his own eyes, and then points to another person. “I’m watching you!” Jesus may have made that gesture when Andrew brought his brother, Simon, to him.
And he brought him to Jesus. Jesus looked at him and said, “You are Simon son of John. You will be called Cephas” (which, when translated, is Peter.) John 1:42, NIV
Jesus told Peter, “I’m watching you.” When Jesus looks at you, he doesn’t just look at you, He looks into you. Jesus knows Peter, and He knows the potential that is in Peter more than anyone else does. He gives Peter a new name. It was more than a quick nickname. In that culture your name represented your lineage and your character. Jesus called Simon ‘Rocky.’ (Peter means rock). He saw something foundational in Peter that others hadn’t seen in him.
When Jesus looks into us, He sees it all. He sees the potential and the flaws. A few years after He first met Peter, Jesus told His disciples they would all abandon Him and Peter said, “I won’t ever abandon you. I will stay with you through thick and thin, dead or alive.” Jesus then informed Peter that Peter would deny knowing Him repeatedly that very night. Jesus isn’t blind to the negative things in us. He’s bifocal. He sees as both as we are and as we could be.
Like Peter, you and I were designed with our potential aliveness in mind. The best thing we can do to increase our aliveness is to get close to the one who sees who we are and who we are meant to be. “My frame was not hidden from you when I was made … when I was woven together … your eyes saw my unformed body. All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.” Psalm 139:15-16, NIV
One minute life-action: Ask God to tell you one thing He sees in you today. Listen all day for His answer.