When they came, he looked on Eliab and thought, ‘Surely the Lord’s anointed is now before the Lord.’ But the Lord said to Samuel, ‘Do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature, because I have rejected him; for the Lord does not see as mortals see; they look on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart.’
I Samuel 16:6-7
You know that feeling when a song comes on the radio or on a long-forgotten playlist that you haven’t heard in a while? How sometimes memories flood back, connected to the music and lyrics? It was just a few days ago when a gentle acoustic guitar and a haunting voice came over my car speakers.
Her shaved head and her pierced nose Big rottweilers and her tie-dyed clothes Dr. Martins with her biker tights Long black leggings on a hot summer night And nobody calls her baby Nobody says "I love you so," Nobody calls her baby I guess she'll never know
The song is called “Baby” and it’s from the album Down by an eclectic duo called Lost and Found. The song beautifully describes people who, by an outward appearance, are hard to love. People who dress to off-put, who bury their sympathies, who hide their pain, and frequently lose their control.
In the sixteenth chapter of the first book of the prophet Samuel, God sends the prophet to the home of Jesse the Bethlehemite to find the next king of Israel, because Saul had been rejected by God. One by one, Jesse produces his sons for Samuel like pageant contestants and immediately the prophet thinks the eldest, Eliab, is the winner. Tall and strong, surely Eliab would the one.
Then God says this: the Lord does not see as morals see; they look on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart. Seven handsome sons pass before Samuel before the youngest, a boy named David, is brought in from the fields and is chosen and anointed.
How often do we judge a book by it’s cover? How often do we then make the mistake of assigning someone to a category because they’re hard, or off-putting, or unsympathetic, or going through some sort of trauma? Even worse, how often do we then hold them responsible for the qualities that we associate with the category?
The theologian Henri Nouwen wrote this: To die to our neighbors means to stop judging them, to stop evaluating them, and thus to become free to be compassionate. Compassion can never coexist with judgment because judgment creates the distance, the distinction, which prevents us from really being with the other.
I encourage you to find the song on your streaming service or on YouTube and listen to the descriptions of the souls that are hard to love. And then listen carefully to the final chorus…
But somebody loves those babies Somebody loves what we can't see And if somebody told them maybe Those babies would be free
The band Lost and Found gets it. Henri Nouwen gets it. The prophet Samuel had to learn it. We need to learn it too. God loves what we can’t see. And if someone calls them Baby, these babies could be freed.
Loving God, help me pray for this hard to love friend, so our hearts will turn to you in faith and love, through Christ and in His name I pray, Amen.
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