Seeing Through God’s Glasses

So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! — 2 Corinthians 5:16-17

For the most of my life my eyesight has been spectacular. For years, JoAnn had to wear glasses so strong that without them she was unable to read the alarm clock beside her in the morning. Watching her, I used to be so glad I didn’t have to deal with hassle of keeping lenses clean, prescriptions updated, and appointments with the eye doctor.

In the last two years however, my eyesight has steadily declined. I can no longer read small print and I can’t read at all unless the light is sufficient. When I wake up in the morning, I have to put on reading glasses to make out the words in my Bible. If I don’t, the words are fuzzy and I have to really work to understand what it is saying.

Paul tells us that when it comes to seeing others, we all need God’s glasses. The world sees people in a certain way. It sees them as a conglomerate of their past. Everything they have done is everything they will ever be. It sees them as a product of their possessions. We are largely defined by what we own, wear, and present. The world sees people as a reflection of their performance. They are only worth equal to what they produce. When we look at people through these lenses, we only see a fuzzy image.

But Paul asserts that none of us are any of those things. We are not what we were, not what we own, and not what we do. Instead, we have been changed by God into something new and unexplainable. If God has makes people something new, then of course God sees them as something new. If God sees them as something new, we should also.

When you look at someone, how do you see them? Do you see them as everything they have always been, or do you see what God is making them? Do you see what they can give you or are you focusing on what God is pouring into them? I find that the more I focus on who a person is at this moment, the less compassion I have for him or her. But when I step back and think about how God is in the process of making him or her the person He created them to be, I get excited to be a part of God’s plan for that person.

God stands outside time so He never looks at us as we are–He sees us as we will become. Imagine what would happen if we all did the same.