"It's Kind of Cute..."

I've now read the same passage from surgeon Richard Selzner's Mortal Lessons (mind you, not in the original book) twice in the last month...it's a wonderful story.  When you look at people, who do you see?  Do you see the beauty of Christ in them?  This story illustrates the true love of Christ that sees through socio-economics, appearances, and any other barrier we impose when it comes to others.

"I stand by the bed where a young woman lies, her face postoperative, her mouth twisted in palsy, clownish.  A tiny twig of the facial nerve, the one to the muscles of her mouth, has been severed.  She will be thus from now on.  The surgeon had followed with religious fervor the curse of her flesh; I promise you that.  Nevertheless, to remove the tumor from her cheek, I had cut the little nerve.
Her young husband is in the room.  He stands on the opposite side of her bed, and together they seem to dwell in the evening lamplight, isolated from me, private.  Who are they, I ask myself, he and this wry-mouth I have made, who gaze at each other so generously, greedily?  The young woman speaks.  'Will my mouth always be like this?' she asks.  'Yes,' I say, 'it will.  It is because the nerve was cut.'     She nods and is silent.  But the young man smiles.  'I like it,' he says. 'It's kind of cute.'  All at once, I know who he is.  I understand, and I lower my gaze.  One is not bold in an encounter with a god.  Unmindful, he bends to kiss her crooked mouth, and I so close I can see how he twists his own lips to accommodate to hers, to show her that their kiss still works."

Lord Jesus, forgive me for looking only at the outward appearance and not the heart.  Help me to see you in others and to love with the compassionate, unconditional love that can only come from You.