For she had eyes, and chose me

Before doubt creeps in. Before tragedy strikes. Before love is lost.
Before any of the wreckage begins in Othello, we get one of the most beautiful lines from Othello about Desdemona: "For she had eyes, and chose me." I think this is what all of us want. We want to be seen, and not for our outward appearance, not for what makes us better or worse than other people, not for our accomplishments, but for what makes them human. We all yearn for somebody who will see us as we are and embrace and love all of it, and that's exactly what Desdemona did for Othello. She heard his tragic backstory, saw the scars on his skin, recognized the years of good and bad in his eyes, and fell in love with it all. I honestly like to picture Othello as somewhat unattractive. Not horribly ugly or repulsive, but also not somebody who would ever be expected to catch the eye of somebody as high-ranking as Desdemona. And yet, she looked past what she saw on the outside, and she chose him for what she saw on the inside. I love that, and I think this is a good reminder to look past what our outward eyes tell us about somebody, and instead take the time to get to know them.
I also love the connection between this phrase and one of my favorite scriptures: Isaiah 53:2 - "and when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him." Those who knew Jesus Christ during his mortal life loved Him because He was kind and good and the Savior of the world. To those who truly knew Him, it would not have mattered if He was the ugliest man alive, because they were able to see how incredible He is. Just a nice side note to think about :)

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