I’ve thought of many words to describe Moses over the course of my life: rescued, rescuer, murderer, deliverer.  But the word beautiful never came to mind. Luke was recounting Israel’s history in Acts 7 and when he gets to the part about Moses’ birth, he says the following:

At this time Moses was born, and he was beautiful in God’s sight.  Acts 7 ESV

There’s not much there to add any additional insight as to why he was beautiful so my mind was left to wonder.  Was it that God being omniscient (all-knowing) and omnipresent (not limited by time or space) could look over the course of Moses’ life and see the decisions he was going to make?  Did that make him more appealing? Was his inherent character better at the time of birth than others?  It seems unfair but hey, life’s not fair.  We’re born with equal value; not equal ability.  But then I remembered similar adjectives God used to describe His creation.

26 Then God said, “Let us make man[h] in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”

31 And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good. Genesis 1 ESV

And then many of us know what happened. Sin entered the world and created a tension – a distance between creation and Creator.  But the helpful thing to me is that God looked through the tarnish of rebellion and disobedience, gazed upon Moses in his infancy and saw him as He saw His prototype – beautiful.

To me, it screams potential and hope.  God looks at a human life, my human life, and chooses to see purpose. It gives me a sense of optimism.  I’m not doomed to failure.  I have the potential to fulfill the vision God has for me that He’s had in his mind from the very beginning. And then – I can extend the same generosity to those around me.  I can choose not to focus on their failures but what they can be.  If God chooses to see the potential in Moses as beautiful, I can choose to see the same in myself and others.