With a View to the Future

I was driving grandson Blake home this week and the sky was a brilliant blue. Not a cloud to be seen. I guess because the sky was so clear and blue, we were able to spot other things in the sky. Blake saw them first – a huge flock of geese flying in formation, headed south. Then we saw a smaller flock doing the same thing.

Just as I looked away from the birds I saw a glimmer. As we got to a stop, I looked through the trees and spotted it! It was a jet.  I told Blake to look but he couldn’t see it. I kept saying turn your head to the right and other directions but he could not see the jet.  Finally I pulled into a parking lot and said again, “LOOK!”  He turned His head, climbed up into my window and put his face right where mine was. He saw it!  Racing through the sky it looked like a silver bullet in the sun trailing a streak of clouds behind it.

Until he got my viewpoint he couldn’t see what I was seeing.  He might have just said never mind. He might have just gone on. He might have missed the magnificent view entirely. But he kept looking until he could see it from my perspective. 

God speaks to my heart: “With a view to the future”.  Such simple words. But He’s speaking to my heart and maybe you need to know it too beloved.  Often we are caught in a scene that’s right out of a horror show. It could be that we’ve held something so dear that we don’t want to let go. We see no point, we  feel no reason, we hear no promises. We’ve been rejected and that’s all we see.  We’ve been left out in the cold and that’s all we feel. We’ve been passed over, turned down, unanswered.  Unless we can get God’s perspective on our present situation we are going to feel frustrated or fearful or maybe even quit. 

It’s up to us.  The view is there. God’s openly showing it to us. He’s trying to get us to quit looking at things from the earthly view.  He’s urging us lovingly to keep looking, keep straining toward God’s face, keep seeking His heart.  He may even ask us to pull over and sit a moment alone with Him until we can find God’s peace.  At some point we have to let God in on our pain and let Him assure us. Who else can soothe us really? And how blessed are we that we have a God who didn’t just create us and leave us to try to figure out the scenes of our lives alone. No, He’s fully acquainted with us – fully prepared to walk us through every single day with us – fully prepared to give us His perspective, even though He’s the Lord of Heaven and Earth. After all, He is our Abba Father as well. Christ has gifted us with the opportunity to have a rich and intimate relationship with God Himself. If we can just let ourselves and our pains go and get into Father God’s lap and see things “with a view to the future” we’ll be able to live seeing God’s face when nothing else makes sense. We’ll know there’s a future for us because He has said so.

Oh beloved, climb up in Abba Father’s lap. Let Him wrap His loving arms around you. Let Him speak truth into your life. When you get his perspective, when you can view things as though you are going into the future, looking beyond yourself, you will know that God’s ways are best. Nothing can ever separate you from the love of God and nothing can keep you from seeing into the blue skies of His perfect will. He loves you and He’s for you and that’s worth slowing down, opening His Word, resting in His promises and moving into the future with fresh determination to live in the light of His Word.

 

Psalm 77:11-13 But then I recall all You have done, O Lord; I remember Your wonderful deeds of long ago.  They are constantly in my thoughts.  I cannot stop thinking about Your mighty works. O God, your ways are holy.     Is there any god as mighty as You?

Psalm 73:23-24 Yet I still belong to you; you hold my right hand.   You guide me with your counsel,
leading me to a glorious destiny.

Deuteronomy 4:29 But from there you will seek the Lord your God, and you will find Him if you search for Him with all your heart and all your soul.