Close your eyes. Paint a picture of Jesus in your mind. What does he look like? If eyes reflect the soul, what do you see in his?
Listen to him. How would you describe his voice? Think specifically, what was Jesus’ tone when he said to the woman with the discharge of blood, “daughter, your faith has made you well, go in peace” (Luke 8:48). What did he communicate to the woman caught in adultery when he said “neither do I condemn you” (John 8:11). When I read those words, I hear compassion and mercy.
Consider another story. In the upper room, Peter boldly proclaimed that he would lay down his life for Jesus who responded, “Will you lay down your life for me? Truly, truly I say to you the rooster will not crow until you have denied me three times.” What was Jesus’s tone in this case? As Jesus predicted, Peter denied him. In Luke’s account of the story, we read that after the third denial, “The Lord turned and looked at Peter” (Luke 22:61).
What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us.–A.W. Tozer
When Jesus caught Peter’s gaze, what was the look upon his face? For most of my life, when I have heard this story, I have imagined that when Jesus was talking with Peter, an edge of irritation intruded as though Jesus were thinking to himself, “Impetuous Peter. Why did I ever choose him, he’s such a screw up.” Then laying eyes upon him, a look of disgust, eyes that communicated worthlessness.
But a friend challenged me recently. He asked, “What if the look upon Jesus face was not one of disappointment, but communicated, ‘Brother, I’ve got this. You are my beloved. Just wait and see what the Father and I are about to do.’”
Jesus never fails to look upon us with compassion. He never fails to love. Not even once. When we are in Christ, we have no need to think of God as a fickle master, for he is unchanging in his love. He is not a cauldron of boiling wrath waiting to be poured on us when we fail him once more. Every moment of every day he gazes upon us with a look that says, “I’ve got this.”
Jason Kanz 