More Lessons from Tarzan...

I finished reading "Trazan of the Apes" and the author's plan to bait the reader into reading the next in the series worked perfectly, I was hooked. I quickly jumped online and filtered my way through Burroughs' original copies priced in the thousands and eventually made my down to the less than $10 reprints of book number two, "The Return of Tarzan". Thanks to Amazon Prime I started reading book two in just under 36 hours.

The story picks up exactly where book one ends with Tarzan feeling sorrowful yet confident with his choice to forsake his birthright in the name of love for one Jane Porter. He finds himself with his friend  D'Arnot in Paris reliving his growing up years in the jungles of Africa. As Tarzan speaks of his adoptive mother Kala, the she-ape he speaks with words that fail to connect to the heart of the other human man listening to him. D'Arnot cannot understand Tarzan's unwavering love for and vast sorrow over the loss of Kala the she-ape. To D'Arnot she was just an ape. To Tazan she was his mother.

As I read through this exchange I came across a powerful line that immediately reminded me of God's outlook on you and I as His children. Tarzan said, "To you, my friend, she would have appeared a hideous and ugly creature, but to me she was beautiful--so gloriously does love transfigure its object. And so I am perfectly content to remain forever the son of Kala, the she-ape." 

It's my belief that God views you and I in much the same way. While others can perhaps view us as hideous and ugly, God sees something much deeper. God sees beyond what we are to what we could be. God doesn't see us as we see ourselves, He doesn't even see us as we hope to one day see ourselves. He sees us in perfectly clarity as we were created to be. God sees past your hideous behavior, past your ugly actions and hurtful words and still He chooses to love us. 

Paul tells the church at Philippi in Philippians 1:6, "And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ." In other words, God sees the completed version of you. He knows you as you will one day be. God isn't finished with you yet. What others see as an incomplete piece of junk, God, because of His great love for you, sees as perfection. May we remain content to forever be sons and daughters of the Most High God. Be encouraged and keep moving forward. 

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