A Different Perspective
Two weeks ago, I felt a buzz in my pocket. I pulled my phone out and put my index finger to the sensor on the back and the little rectangle glowed to life. The notification was an annoying blip from the Amazon app announcing an item on my wish list was on a temporary sale. Annoyed, I placed my thumb on the notification and went to swipe it into digital oblivion. As I slid it away, the little annoyance caught my eye. The notification was for an amazing bargain on a drone I had been eyeing for months and with the gifts cards I had banked the deal was too good to let pass. After receiving the device there were three or four crashes, but soon flying became easy, so the next step was taking photos with the camera.
At first, these pictures were from open areas like the softball complex and the football field. Soon I felt more daring and started taking photos of our church building and the horizon from above the trees in the middle of town. As I began to look at these photos, I noticed quickly how different things look from a birds eye view. Naturally there is a different perspective of the surroundings from that angle. Everyone who sees the pictures is drawn to taking in all the details and trying to figure out exactly where the picture was taken and which direction the camera was pointing.
These photos have caused me to reflect. I find I look at things around town differently just because those images have given me a different perspective. Imagine how differently God views the world. I'm not meaning that he sees everything from above or from different angles. God is almighty and all powerful. He is omniscient and omnipresent. He is all-knowing and everywhere. He spoke the entire universe into existence. This has caused me to contemplate how God views time and our place in his world.
Too often I am prone to thinking my view of the world is similar to how God would see it. Despite my narcissistic delusions, I am but a speck in the vastness of creation. Compared to a God who is beyond time, my life is a vapor. Yet, this God loves us, and this is not a love that is just a positive feeling towards us. It is a love shown to us in fullness through the person and work of Jesus Christ. This God, who is from everlasting stepped into history because he worked all things together for the good of his children and for the glory of his holy name. He is eternal and has an eternal perspective.
We see a lot of bad things in the world. Whether it is disease or tragedy, we come to those things and we can easily wonder what is going on. We can find the word "because" coming to our mind repeatedly. These are legitimate questions. Scripture has many instances of people asking God these same questions. As we meet these struggles, it is important that we remember that God is from everlasting. He sees things from a different perspective. He alone can work all these struggles and tragedies together for good for those who love him. In our questioning and lament may we find comfort in the truth that God, in Christ, has brought us to himself and he loves us. May we rest in the truth that as believers everything in our lives, the good and the bad, will bring glory to our great God and King.
