From Your View – What Do You See?

Some might see this window as restrictive, kind of like the windows at the zoo or the aquarium  – like the real living is on the other side, or some might see this window as dirty, infested with creepy critters.

I love my window. It’s as though while I sit beside it daily, Shaddai stops by, leans against it and spends times with me, encourages me – rain or shine. The weather doesn’t stop him.

Sometimes He brings the squirrels with Him, or we watch the rain-drops racing down the pane – or He sends a spider to decorate a one-of-a-kind design just for me, for Halloween.

The slight spills in, the tree leaves in view reach upward, dancing in the wind and people walk through my frame in hope for a future – daily they do this – hope on parade, you could say.

This window, it is a symbol of His provision and protection, too.

You see, sometimes I struggle with where I am – and all I have to do is look out that window – and He reminds me that He hasn’t forgotten me – everything is all on His schedule. He’s got it.

How do you see where you are, the window you look through as you live life?

What do you see? Or maybe I should say, “How do you see?”

Perspective is everything. It is the difference between joy, hope and love.

Perspective changes everything, too.

The three wise men didn’t just see a star – they saw the way to Jesus

Caleb and Joshua didn’t see impossibility – they saw possibility.

Jesus didn’t just see a blind man, a prostitute, a fisherman – He saw straight to their soul and loved them, loved them enough to heal them, give them living water, make them fishers of men.

What do you see in the daily, looking out your windows, in the bite of the challenge or the comfort of a hug?

What do you see and How do you see it?

“We look at this Son and see God’s original purpose in everything created. For everything, absolutely everything, above and below, visible and invisible, rank after rank after rank of angels—everything got started in him and finds its purpose in him. He was there before any of it came into existence and holds it all together right up to this moment” (Col 1: 16-17)

Do you see His purpose? His perspective? His plan? His love?

^“The fundamental fact of existence is that this trust in God, this faith, is the firm foundation under everything that makes life worth living. It’s our handle on what we can’t see. The act of faith is what distinguished our ancestors, set them above the crowd.

By faith, we see the world called into existence by God’s word, what we see created by what we don’t see” (Hebrews 11: 1-3)

When we see the world His way it changes how we see everything

I can see the hungry, the thirsty, the homeless, the shivering, the sick, the imprisoned

whether it is the pan-handler scamming me out of a $20  on a roadside

or someone imprisoned in their own pain that makes them sullen and ill-tempered,

whether it is someone who judges you unfairly or doesn’t give you a chance

those inside pretty and inside ugly, hungry to see God, to believe but they cannot see it, they’re blind to it.

Someone who thirsts for someone to care – real care, real sticking to a relationship, faithfulness in the right now

someone heart-sick through pent-up unforgiveness that bursts forth like a huge sneeze, spreading its germ all around – needing someone to risk the contagion to bring the chicken soup for the soul.

someone soul shivering for removing the mask, revealing it all

a homeless person who has an address but no community, no-one to sit with over a cup of coffee, no one to share their burdens – and we need to share our challenges – just to let it out sometimes – with someone who understands and sees the odd-ball humor swirling in the midst of it – and laughs with you.

When we see Him, we see the hurting whether it is physically hurting or inside-hurting – and He shows us how to respond, how to love.

Persepctive opens our eyes, not only to possibilities but to need – need that sometimes shows itself in uncomfortable ways.

God-perspective gives us vision to see the need, to see a glass half-full, to see hope, to see that maybe beneath someone shouting hurt is a person hurting

and with the seeing of these needs is the call to engage – in prayer, in reaching, in pulling that person into the family of God. Seeing is the prelude to grace action.

When you sit at your window in the daily, what do you see?