Zooming Out
29/08/2019 16:03
I packed my son’s lunch before he left for work, pulling open a kitchen drawer to grab a bag for his lunch box. It was the last bag in the package, so after I removed it, I found myself holding a little cardboard cylinder. I started to turn the cylinder over in my hands—when I heard a whisper in my heart.
Don’t throw it away—it’s a gift from Me.
Oh? What did God mean? I took the little ‘gift’ into my den and looked through one end. Through it I spotted part of the French door that led to our kitchen and family room. I moved my head, peering inside my den this time. The picture for August on my calendar beamed at me—a scene of the night sky now viewed through a little circular frame. I looked down below it, and saw the soft head of my baby giraffe as he sat on a chair to my left. I next checked my desk and found the book I was studying during my Quiet Time: "Let God fight your battles" by Joyce Meyer.
Gazing nearer, I saw through my binoculars the small smiling man who hangs in front of me. On his chubby yellow body is inscribed ‘JESUS LOVES ME'—a great reminder that God loves me. I looked further away and saw a good portion of my guitar as it sat on the ground waiting to be played. I looked down in front of me, seeing only a few letters of my computer keyboard—I was too close to it to see more of them. I turned my head and spotted a little keepsake that has ‘Every new day is a new start’, this one in its totality, because it was little. I looked in front of me to beautiful words on LOVE that I’ve hung there—and read all of it.
“LOVE – Love always protects, always trusts,
always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails.”
1 Cor 10:7-8
The further away an object sat, the more opportunity I had to see the whole of it, even if the diameter of my binoculars was small. Items physically closer showed only parts of themselves—naturally. I heard God’s whisper again, this time asking me to zoom out. I removed the little ‘toy’ from my face and viewed the room. What a difference! All the bits and pieces that made up my little den joined together to make it a warm and wonderful place.
Some months ago, as I sought God’s help in facing a battle against the Enemy of our souls, God gave me six vital keys to fight with. Not least of them was the command to zoom out of my current circumstance.
‘Zoom out of the small picture Nushi’, God seemed to say.
“Zoom out of what you think is important—your present situation, the difficulties that weigh your down, the little moment in front of you, the sadness or pain you carry today. Instead, zoom into life from My view. What’s really important. Eternity. My love for you, which never fails. Heaven’s values as opposed to earth’s. See the big picture, Nushi. The real one; the lasting one.”
I loved the lesson. Now here He was, re-iterating its importance through my cardboard toy. As I focussed my mind on things above, the little moments filled with anxiety slipped away. As I began to see my life as God saw it, I discovered that what I was griping about was not worth the trouble. As I focussed on the face of Jesus, His glory and grace overshadowed all else—an enchanting rainbow brightening a dark world, splashing its surrounds in shimmering splendour.
Today, do you need to zoom out of your circumstances?
Do you need to zoom instead into the face of Jesus?
Do you need to gaze on life as God sees it through fresh eyes of faith, hope and love?
And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him,
who have been called according to his purpose. Romans 8:28
So if you’re serious about living this new resurrection life with Christ, act like it.
Pursue the things over which Christ presides. Don’t shuffle along, eyes to the ground, absorbed with the things right in front of you. Look up and be alert to what's going on around Christ - that's where the action is.
See things from His perpective." Col 3:1-3 (TPT)
