(RNS) James Cameron’s new film, “Avatar,” opened in theaters across America as the most expensive movie ever made — it’s the first film ever made in true 3-D. Once you put on the special 3-D glasses, what you see changes everything.

Here as we are knee-deep in the middle of Christmas, I wondered what would happen if we could put on special glasses and see hearts as they really are. Go ahead, put on the glasses and look around. What do you see?

I see a mother’s heart pounding with excitement because her children are coming home for the holidays. Yet there is also anxiety: work to be done, unfinished decorations, unwrapped gifts. She worries about that one adult child whose arrival always brings tension.

I see the anxious heart of a husband and father who has been out of work. He feels pretty worthless. He tries to put a good face on it, but it’s ripping him apart. He wants to give his wife and kids a great Christmas, but he’s broke. Looking down the barrel of this economy, there seems to be no end in sight.

I see an angry bitter heart. Look how the roots of bitterness– the memory of those unkind words from long-ago incidents — are clung to, never to be forgotten. I see a lonely heart. The holidays deepen the awareness of aloneness, of going home each night to an empty house to cook for one.

I stop by the local food bank with my special glasses on and I see grateful hearts — thankful for a warm place to sit and have a fresh cup of coffee or hot bowl of soup and be welcomed with a smile. Thankful to receive a bag of groceries to help get through another week.

I see the warm hearts of volunteers realizing it is more blessed to give than to receive.

I see sad, broken disappointed hearts over a failing marriage and betrayal by a loved one. I see burdened hearts as family members watch a loved one fighting a losing battle with sickness.

I see a hungry heart, searching, seeking, knocking on the door and longing to find a place called home.

I see an envious, ungrateful greedy heart looking around at what other people have; coveting, wanting and constantly comparing.

I see a joyful heart in a seasoned soul who is no longer thrown off course by anything life can deal. This heart is settled, secure and full of faith, hope and love.

Now that you have looked around, take a risk. Put on the glasses and look into your own heart. What do you see? Excitement? Anxiety? Anger? Bitterness? Loneliness? Hopefulness? Gratitude? Disappointment? Hunger? Greed? Joy? Pride?

This holiday season, remember that God sees your heart even better than you do. “For the LORD sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but God looks on the heart,” the Good Book tells us.

God saw the hearts on that first Christmas: The fearful hearts of the shepherds, the pondering heart of Jesus’ mother, the worshipping hearts of the wise men from the East and the cold-hardened heart of Herod.

This Christmas, remember that God showed his heart when Jesus was born. In the fullness of time when God chose to reveal his heart, he didn’t send a fiery, condemning prophet nor an intellectually challenging treatise. God so loved the world that God sent a message that was clear and simple enough for everyone to understand: a baby.

Harry Connick Jr. penned some lovely lines about the heart of Christmas in his song, “The Blessed Dawn of Christmas Day,” and they’re worth reading again, this time through our Christmas-colored glasses:

“I rose to join the glorious morn; whose calm and splendor would adorn the virgin mother’s infant born the blessed dawn of Christmas day. I pray one day my heart will see the light of God’s eternity and know that Jesus died for me. Now close, my eyes so I may rise at blessed dawn of Christmas day.”

(Dick Staub is the author of “The Culturally Savvy Christian” and the host of The Kindlings Muse (http://www.thekindlings.com). His blog can be read at http://www.dickstaub.com)