“So we have stopped evaluating others from a human point of view. At one time we thought of Christ merely from a human point of view. How differently we know Him now!” (2 Corinthians 5:16 NLT)
As I age my memory just isn’t what it used to be, but I’m finding there are advantages. Now I can hide my own Easter eggs and plan my own surprise parties! There are others, but I can’t remember what they are. 😊 Seriously, there are things about my life I prefer not to remember, especially how I used to think about and act towards those who were “different” than me. How so?
When I was young and knew everything there was to know about everything, I would “pigeon hole” people. It was easier to categorize others than it was to build a friendship with them and discover we were much more alike than different. Now, I’m drawn to people who are different than me. By God’s grace, I’m able to see them through the lens of His love.
While watching an episode of a series I enjoy, I was reminded that time can sometimes distort our vision. One of the main characters reconnects with a girl with whom he’d once been engaged, but he’d broken it off a few days before their wedding because he learned she’d been unfaithful. As a result, she severs contact with, not only him, but with her family.
After many months, her brother asks his sister’s former fiancé if he’ll help him find her. He does, and takes her to a spot by the lake that had been one of their favorite places. She’s still trying to keep her distance emotionally, but he says to her: “You’re the one who said life never looked simpler than it did from right here.” To which she responded: “Sometimes a view is just a view.”
The conversation continues and she says: “And now I see you and I see my family and all I can see is what I lost.” To which he responds: “Sometimes a view is just a view.”
So, what’s my point? Sometimes, when we’re running from ourselves and/or God, we burn a lot of bridges, or at least think we did. So much so that we build this idea in our mind that we’ve run too far and now we’re out of God’s reach. We say and do things we deeply regret, damaging relationships with those we’ve loved, and now think they’re lost to us.
Like the Prodigal son in Luke 15, we build this “conversation” with our “father” based on how we now perceive things, when the truth is, it’s only a “view” we’ve created in our own mind, that most often doesn’t correlate with the facts. Satan will do all within his power to keep us from God and from loving family who have been praying for our return.
The truth is, we do that with a lot of things God tells us to do. For months I’ve procrastinated passing out a note to my neighbors. In my mind’s eye I thought of all the things they would say or do that would make me look and/or feel badly. But a few weeks ago, I prayed through and decided it didn’t matter how they respond to me, I needed to obey God. As of this writing, everything I’ve heard from my neighbors has been positive.
As real as it may seem to you, sometimes a “view” is just something Satan puts in our minds to try to cause us to back down and stay the same. It’s a distortion of the truth because Satan wants us to change for the worse, not the better. He wants to push us ever further away from God and believing family members. But the Lord is persistent in His loving pursuit of us, and will follow us to the gates of hell, if need be, to rescue us.
Whatever your “view” of how things might be; no matter how far you’ve run or how disobedient you’ve been, on the authority of God’s Word, and the compassion of my almighty Savior, His view of you is – “it’s time to for you to come home!”
His love for you is greater, His forgiveness deeper, His desire to set you on a new, satisfying, life-renewing path is stronger and better than anything you’ve ever imagined possible. Bring your sin and shame and lay them at the Savior’s feet. Let Him love you back to wholeness; to the person He’s “seen” you could be since before the foundation of this world.
Sometimes a view is just a view, not reality.
Blessings, Ed 😊
Walking With Jesus 