The FAA is testing a new “holographic imaging radar.” Pacific Northwest National Laboratory is developing this tool. Despite its wonderful benefits, it is bit too revealing for most of us. The radar bounces tiny waves off a human body. These waves pass through clothing, but not plastic, metal, or skin. This is great if you are looking for hidden weapons beneath a traveler's clothing. NOTHING under the clothing is hidden. This is not so great unless you want to share an extremely vivid image of your naked body to a total stranger!
As Christians, we’ve known we can’t hide who we are from God. Noah’s story taught us that long ago. Better than any imaging radar, God can look inside and see the real us. He sees our hearts with a clarity that even we ourselves cannot.
At first glance, God knowing us so completely is threatening.
“How can he love me if he really knows some of my worst thoughts in my weakest of moments?”
“How can he forgive me when I harbor bitterness and resentment toward others?”
“How can he know me and still love me?”
Rather than allowing God’s knowledge to threaten us, we should take confidence in his love. He sent Jesus to show us this love. Jesus’ ministry was built on his knowledge of us. He didn’t need a new holographic x-ray image to see underneath our clothes. He knows our hearts. This is what makes God’s grace so remarkable and Jesus’ death so incredible.
This is love at it’s finest.
Jesus knew us, the worst part of us, and yet he still came to die for us! He could see beneath the exterior of our religious pretensions. He understood the potential for depravity in our hearts. Seeing inside us only made him long to redeem us more.
This is love at it’s finest. He came seeing our inside so we would not be afraid to be honest with him about who we are. In fact, this is why he came—“to seek and save that which is lost,” “to bring sinners to repentance,” “to be a friend to tax collectors and outcasts,” and to take those who are “last” and make them “first.”
Rather than turning away from us, Jesus chooses to come live inside us to transform us through the Holy Spirit. Rather than leave what is wrong with our hearts hidden, he comes to reveal and transform our hearts.
I’m not sure I’m ready for an airport official to take a look inside my clothes with his holographic imaging radar. But I am comforted to know that the one who sees inside my heart will not run away because of what he sees. Instead, he will come and help transform me to be like him!
