In the book The Angel Inside written by Chris Widener, the author relates the following story: "One day, Michelangelo was working on this marble that would become [the sculpture] David when a young child came by. The young boy asked Michelangelo why he was working so hard hitting the rock. Michelangelo said to him, 'Young boy, there is an angel inside of this rock, and I am setting him free.'"

God sees the angel inside each one of us

As a sculptor, Michaelangelo could see the potential found in a simple block of stone in much the same way that God sees our potential. He sees the angel inside each one of us, and He longs to set it free. We may not see it, and others may not see it, but our creator sees it. His perspective of who are and what we can become is both limitless and eternal.

We are often wrong about what we see in others

Perspective is the way we look at or view something or someone. Our perspective differs from that of others. In fact, no two of us see things from exactly the same vantage point. We may watch a misbehaving child and make certain assumptions about who she is. And we may be wrong. Just as God does, if we look instead on her heart and love her for who she truly is, we can help her become who she is meant to become.

We are also often wrong about what we see in ourselves

There are both adults and children who have been convinced by unfeeling others that they are stupid, worthless, fat or ugly. They may come to accept these portraits of who they are. We hear tragic stories of children who take their own lives after being bullied by their peers on social media. We find ourselves angry over the senseless behavior of vicious bullies and perhaps baffled that precious children of God accept the limited perspective of callous others. Let us look instead to see what God sees.

God knows where each piece of our puzzle belongs

Family advocate Rafael Pino tells this story about his children.

"In our home our children liked to do jigsaw puzzles. One of our children used to focus on the individual pieces, and when one did not fit in the place where he thought it should, he would become angry and assume it was no good and want to throw it away. He finally learned to do the puzzle when he understood that each small piece had its place in the final picture, even when he did not know where it fit at a given moment...The Lord knows where each piece [of our puzzle] belongs so that it fits into [His] plan for us." We won't see the final masterpiece that God is making of our lives until all the messy puzzle pieces finally fall into their proper places.

Seeing ourselves and others as children of God changes us

God knows us individually. It is He who sees what we can become. When we understand we are all precious children of God, it changes us for the better. Let us come to see the angel inside both ourselves and others.