There’s a story of a homeless man sitting across the street from an artist’s studio. The artist saw him and thought he’d make an interesting portrait. So from a distance he painted this man – but not with downcast eyes and drooping shoulders. When he was finished, he took it over to him. ‘Who is it?” the beggar asked. ‘It’s you,’ the artist replied.’ ‘No,’ he said. ‘I don’t look like that.’ But the artist replied, ‘Well, that’s how I see you.’ He then gave the portrait to him and returned to his studio. Every time he looked across the street he saw the man staring at it almost in wonder. But after that day he never saw him sitting there begging again.
It reminds me of how Jesus looks at us; not as we are, but as what we can be. The Bible says: ‘If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.’