What’s Your Ear Length?

So, what’s on my mind?

I recently learned one of those facts that sounds completely made up but is apparently true. Before fingerprinting became the standard way for police to identify people, investigators often used a system that measured various parts of the body. Among those measurements? Ear length.

Imagine being pulled over and having an officer say, “Sir, I’m going to need to measure your ears.” As strange as it sounds, for a while people believed that a collection of physical measurements, including the size of your ears, could uniquely identify you. Eventually, fingerprinting proved to be far more reliable, and ear measurements were retired from law enforcement.

The whole thing got me thinking about how we identify people. Our world is full of labels and measurements. We identify people by their jobs, accomplishments, education, political views, social media profiles, bank accounts, athletic ability, appearance, or family connections. Sometimes we even identify ourselves by those things. But when we open Scripture, we find that God has a different way of seeing people. When the prophet Samuel was searching for Israel’s next king, God reminded him, “People judge by outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart” (1 Samuel 16:7).

Thankfully, God doesn’t measure our worth by the size of our ears, the balance of our checking accounts, the number of followers we have, or the mistakes we’ve made. God sees something deeper. God sees beloved children created in His image. That’s good news for all of us. Most of us have things we’d rather not have measured. We have failures we’d rather not discuss. We have insecurities we’d rather keep hidden. But God’s love is not based on any of those things. God already knows us and loves us before we accomplish anything, before we prove anything, before we impress anyone.

So, this week, remember that your identity isn’t found in the measurements the world uses. It isn’t found in success, popularity, appearance, or even ear length. Your truest identity is found in the One who knows you completely and calls you His own. And for that, we can be grateful—no tape measure required.

May God hold you,
Rev Chris Hester