“I looked at him and saw you.”

Yeah, I know: I haven’t blogged much lately. I’m sure you’re all dying to hear my ALL-NBA selections again this year, but that’ll have to wait until later. Busy days in the Giesman household, with a two-year-old birthday party fast approaching and the other hassles of life. In the meantime, here’s the latest church newsletter entry for May. (I forgot to post April’s entry.) It’s church-newsletter-length, but I promise I’ll unleash a thousand words or more upon the interwebs soon about some topic to be determined later. In the meantime, enjoy. -Matt

I got to watch a movie with my wife the other night, and it wasn’t a cartoon. (If you have young kids, you’ll understand what a rare blessing that is.) It was a pretty good movie; I could give several reasons why, but there’s one scene that sticks with me this morning. It’s a conversation between a father and son. The father is a stern figure, a judge of 40+ years, and his middle son (whose relationship with his dad is strained at best) is asking the judge why he was so lenient years ago with one juvenile delinquent who committed a violent crime (and then later committed a heinous murder soon after the lenient prison sentence ended). “I looked at him and saw you,” the dad/judge explains to his son, who was also a troubled youth for a time. The dad/judge thought this kid needed a second chance, which is what he would’ve wanted someone to give his son, he explains. Of course, the judge’s leniency completely backfired, which explains the second exchange between father and son. The son asks his father why then was he so harsh with him, his own son. The dad/judge answers, “I looked at you and saw him.” He looked at his wayward son and saw the juvenile delinquent who abused his patience and leniency, so he erred in the opposite direction. He was overly harsh and stern with his son, and the relationship suffered.

“I looked at you and saw him.” Those words are tragic and laced with regret in this movie. They’re the confession of a parent who tried his best but erred. Surely, any of us can identify with that lament.

But those words (I looked at you and saw him) don’t have to be a source of bad news or regret. Because the glory of the gospel is this – If we are in Christ Jesus, God looks at you and sees Him. God looks at us and sees His Son. God looks at us and sees us not as we are (guilty, vile, and helpless – we), but as if we were covered in the righteousness of Christ (spotless lamb of God was He). Just as if we had never sinned, justified, not guilty – That’s how God sees us. (Full atonement, can it be? Hallelujah! What a Savior!)