This afternoon, I had a tangible reminder of how much God has changed my heart.

I was heading home after a quick trip to the local stationery warehouse when I saw a woman walk up to the traffic lights to cross the street. She was thin and gaunt, with telltale marks of a long history of addiction. Her gait was awkward and unsteady, her eyes sunken, her skin and hair dried up from what looked like years of substance abuse. She was actually the spitting image of one of the meth addicts on Breaking Bad. A mere skeleton of who she was created to be.

A heart damaged

Years ago, my response to her would have been to scold her for her choices, to judge her actions and deem her unfit to coexist with polite society. I would have seen the shell of a woman who had lived her life “badly” and dismissed her as fit only for the rubbish heap of life.

Today, my heart went out to her. All I felt for her was compassion and love, how much she is loved by the Creator of the universe. How she was created for amazing things. How beautiful she is, no matter how much life has rolled her in the mud. She is love and valued, despite what the world has told her for all of her life.

My instinct was to try to pull over somewhere and tell her how much she was truly worth, that she mattered, that she was loved. But there was nowhere to stop and she disappeared into the mall. All I could do was pray for her in that moment and ask Jesus to show her his love and compassion.

A heart transformed

As I prayed, the Holy Spirit showed me how much my heart has changed. As I have waited on God and listened to his voice, he has been doing a reconstruction work in my inner being. He has slowly changed my heart from being hard and judgmental to something much softer and more pliable, a heart much closer to His own.

“I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.”

‭‭— Ezekiel‬ ‭36:26‬

That’s how much the Creator of the universe cares about us. That He would transform my heart so that I would in turn have love and compassion for His children. Even the ones that seem to us to be beyond help. That’s who He is. That’s our incredible, loving, transforming God.

This is what happens when you stop for the One.