“Not as man sees does God see, because man sees the appearance but the Lord looks into the heart.”  1 Samuel 6:7  With these words, God tells Samuel to trust, not his own eyes, but the insight of the Holy Spirit in order to know whom God has chosen to lead Israel.  How else would Samuel have chosen to anoint a shepherd boy?  Wisdom, the ability to see as God sees, is the greatest gift of the Holy Spirit, a grace bestowed upon each one of us in baptism and confirmation.  Like all of God’s blessings, wisdom must be cultivated in order to bear fruit. 

God grants us many opportunities to practice wisdom, to look beyond what appears to be, to forgive as we wish to be forgiven, to judge not, lest we be judged, to leave vengeance to God.  Stewardship of the gift of wisdom requires ongoing cultivation of the other gifts of the Holy Spirit, beginning with the fear of the Lord, what Proverbs 22:4 describes as humility.

How hard is it for me to see others through the loving eyes of God?