Grossly normal!

Hmm...Grossly normal! I'm thinking "wart!" Yep, that looks normal...for a wart. But gross just the same!

A few years back I had the worst time with a wart on my left heel. The thing was deep and nasty, and my doctor was afraid that if she froze it off, she might do some damage to my foot. So we left it alone. I tried everything, including duct tape! I know that sounds odd, but I read that if you stick a piece of duct tape over a wart, its oxygen supply will be cut off, and it will go away. I'm not sure that really did too much to help, but eventually my body got tired of that virus, and it gradually melted away to nothing. Now my foot is grossly normal!

Gross. As a medical transcriptionist, I type that little word every day, because to doctors it means something entirely different.
"The patient's physical exam is grossly normal."
"The legs are without edema and grossly normal."
"On gross examination, the patient is a middle-aged female who appears in no acute respiratory distress."

To doctors, "gross" means something that is visible to the naked eye. A "gross lesion" would be a lesion that is plainly visible without a microscope. (My wart was definitely a "gross lesion" in more ways than one!!) Or "gross hematuria" would be blood that is plainly visible in the urine just by looking at its color. Or "on gross examination" (what he can see by looking at her), the patient is a middle-aged woman who seems to have no difficulty breathing.

There is no such thing as "grossly normal" to God. He is not limited by my outward appearance and does not care a bit whether I look normal or abnormal. He isn't fooled by any of my attempts to fit in and does not value me more if I look good. He has the whole picture, straight down to my heart. And He loves me.

"Man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart." --I Samuel 16:7