DAILY READINGS IN LIFE OF CHRIST - J.R. Miller 

January 10. God Looks on the Heart

" 5 There was in the days of Herod, the king of Judaea, a certain priest named Zacharias, of the course of Abia: and his wife was of the daughters of Aaron, and her name was Elisabeth. 6 And they were both righteous before God, walking in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord blameless." Luke 1:5-6

Of course, this does not mean that they were absolutely faultless — but that their lives were so beautiful, so sincere and faithful — that God saw nothing in them to blame or rebuke. 

This is very beautifully illustrated in one of Mrs. Herrick Johnson's tender little poems. A mother is sitting at her work; her mind perplexed as she thinks of her poor faulty life. She had longed to serve the Master, and had tried to do so; but it seemed to her that she had utterly failed. Just then she turned the garment she was mending, and her eye "caught an odd little bundle of mending and patchwork done by some other hand. Her heart grew tender as the truth flashed over her. Her little daughter had wanted to help her. To be sure, she had made a botch of it; but the mother knew it was the best she could do, and she felt a strange yearning for her child. Then a voice whispered, "Are you tenderer for the little child — than I am tender for you?" She understood it all in a flash, and her perplexed faith brightened into peace!