You’re part of a circus. We are all like self-conscious clowns, each looking at the other to see whose getup is the most dazzling or embarrassing. And if humanity is the clown, the world is the ringleader. It spews at us a doctrine of cosmetics, saying we can feel good within by looking good without; beautifying the soul with mascara and Armani. It feeds the rich and famous, while tossing a few condescending crumbs to the commoner. And the funny thing is, we eat it all up. We applaud the charismatic, gossip about the scandalous, and gawk at the beautiful. We look to each other to answer the question: “Have I got what it takes?” It’s absurd. So absurd that God sent his Son so that we would stop looking at each other and turn our gaze to Him. When He came, we hid our faces from Him, despised and esteemed Him not. Yet when He scanned the horizon of humanity, He saw dignity. He saw not a leper, but a man who was in need of a loving embrace; not an adulteress, but a woman who thirsted for companionship; not a demon-possessed man, but a man who was haunted by evil. His focal point was not what the person had or did, but who they were. He noticed faces amongst affliction. He did not need any testimony about mankind, for He knew what was in each person. And that’s just it: man looks at the outward appearance, but God looks at the heart. We pay attention to the world without, but God sees the world within. We say, “Look at that poor fellow.” God says, “Look at my Son.”
Peter Chen is a graduating senior at San José State University majoring in Communication Studies. I love to write and have a passion for God and rhetoric. I am grateful to be taking classes that enrich my personal life as well as having real life experiences that feed into my studies here at San José State University.
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