1 Samuel 16: 7

Sean Smith

I don't know about you, but I find there is something special about springtime. Whether it's the budding of the plants, or the fresh crispness of the early morning sun (am I sounding like a 72 year old?) anyway it wouldn't be the first time that people thought I was sad. My youth group constantly think I'm sad, you see I'm a bit of a cleanaholic! (My spellchecker doesn't recognise that word, how strange?). What do I mean, well each summer we run several different youth and children's activities/holidays and for the two youngest age groups we have the older group run it as a mission (under my watchful eye) so anyway we all stop up @ the church where we sleep! Eat (the ladies from our church bring us food, and there is always custard!) and generally just hang around and have a laugh, but there is just one problem with this blissful scene, and that is that 14 -18 year olds are not known for their tidiness! And well this gets me ever so slightly annoyed! You see I love things clean, tidy and in their place. My wife had the second of our children in March and well the house is an absolute mess at the moment, we are both too tired to clean the house properly and quite frankly it's doing my head in! So now that you know how sad I am what is the point of all this waffle?

1 Sam 16:7
'But the LORD said to Samuel, "Do not consider his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him. The LORD does not look at the things man looks at. Man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart."'

So often we can get so caught up in the things around us that we forget about the real thing that God is looking at. We can turn up at church looking fantastic with all the latest clothes, gadgets, Jennifer Anniston hair cut (and that's just the guys) but our lives can be so full of rubbish, of the days, weeks, months, year's events. Samuel automatically thought that God had chosen Eliab to be the new King but he could only see his outward appearance.

Luke 16: 15
'He said to them, "You are the ones who justify yourselves in the eyes of men, but God knows your hearts. What is highly valued among men is detestable in God's sight."'

The Pharisees used to take care of their outward appearance and thought that that was enough, but Jesus saw right through them! The question to us all now, is what does Jesus see in us? Looking good on the outside is great and we need to make an effort, but let's begin to look at the stuff in our own lives that Jesus considers rubbish and throw them out.