For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.

Isaiah 55:9

When I walk into a room full of people, I do not see everything. I don’t have a detail-oriented brain, so I won’t notice what most people are wearing, it will take me a minute to put faces with names, and I will only come up with the appropriate response or fully understand my feelings about a particular conversation if I replay it in my head later on.

While I am not good at the details, I am good at the big picture stuff: the purpose behind what we do, the interconnectedness of things, and the way people feel. I don’t always know the right thing to say or the right way to emote in the moment, but I promise I will ruminate on words or situations for days to come. It has been a trait I have at times hated, but am slowly seeing why God made some people this way.

I’ve been thinking about God’s value system lately — not just what He values, but how He values. I am in awe when I think that He is both detail and big picture oriented, and that He does both with precision and to an infinite degree. He sees every side of an issue, every possible outcome, and how everything ultimately intersects and works together in the greater tapestry. And He is orchestrating it all!

When I (in my flawed, human, non-detail-oriented perspective) evaluate things, I am always working from a distinct and limited lens. I often name things good or bad based on how good or bad they are to me, and even then, those words have a very reductive meaning to me because my capacity to appreciate goodness (beauty, efficacy, truth) and badness (sin, chaos, obliviation) is so small.

God has none of those limitations. He can evaluate from any lens, from any number of lenses, or with none at all. He can use any number of measurements for any given person because He is always the standard. He evaluates the heart, the thoughts and intentions. Simultaneously, He evaluates the talents gained compared to the talents given; the work, time, and resources invested; the beauty, efficacy, and truth that is produced. He can see how it affects all aspects of the kingdom and how it brings glory to His name. Who will be hurt and who will be helped. Who will feel the echoes 100 years from now. He sees the unseen players in the spiritual realm. Hears every prayer of every righteous person that has a role to play.

I think about how knowing this — that God’s evaluation and judgments are so much higher than ours — should not only change the way we steward our personal talents (as in the unique ways He gifts us and the many blessings He lavishes on us) but also the people He has given us to shepherd. If you are a leader in any way, whether it’s your own children or if it’s a large platform, you will be held to a higher standard for stewardship.

We need to notice the people in our circles. We need to pray for more wisdom in this. I want to be better and better at noticing the details, not just judging the-way-she-feels-about-her or the-expression-that-shows-what-you-really-think-about-me… God’s Word divides the thoughts and intentions of the heart, not Gracie. I can discern the spiritual atmosphere of a room, but I have to roll over that discernment to leverage it for love and unity in the body. I need to ask God to give me his evaluative eyes for people — to see where their strengths and beauty shine brightest, to call and to draw it out, and to delight in people with genuine affection and not just for what they can contribute.

God’s evaluative gaze calls us all to give account, though it is outside our own systems of measurement. I think it is worth asking once and awhile: “And here? What is it you value, Lord?”