Go to the Heart

One morning, during our first year of marriage, we were headed to the university in our VW Beetle, Myrtle (her christened name). To avoid morning traffic, we chose the back road which took us through miles and miles of farmland. We drove along without talking; my beloved was lost in his thoughts as I sat in the passenger seat studying for a test.

I casually looked up just as he swerved to hit a giant turtle that was crossing the road. My mouth gaping open, I stared straight ahead in shock as I heard the horrible gallump gallump of our tires running over its shell. Then I whipped around in my seat and screamed, “How could you do such a thing?”

Without waiting for his answer, my mind raced. Who was this man that I had just married? Who goes out of their way in order to hit animals on the road? I burst into tears and whispered, “How could you intentionally hit that poor, defenseless turtle?”

“I didn’t intentionally hit the turtle,” he replied calmly. “Apparently there were two turtles, but I didn’t know that. I saw a turtle in the road and served to miss it. I didn’t know that another turtle was right behind it until I ran over it.”

Oh.

Okay.

He may not be the most observant driver in the world, but at least he’s not a sadistic, cold-blooded turtle assassin.

As I think back to that incident, it is interesting to me the importance that intent plays in our actions. He killed a turtle, but he didn’t intend to. His intent was to avoid the turtle that he saw. I was so ready to be mad at him until I realized that he didn’t mean to do it.

Maybe that is why Jesus places such emphasis on what is going on in our hearts. Once I removed myself from his actions and looked at his heart, I understood his actions better.

It made me wonder; how diligent am I about looking a person’s heart, in order to understand their actions better?

How diligent are you?

“The Lord does not look at the things man looks at.

Man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.”

I Samuel 16:7