Seeing It His Way

I have brushed away your offenses like a cloud, your sins like a mist; return to me, for I have redeemed you. Isaiah 44:22

A couple weeks ago my grandson, Lewis was baptized.  It was such a great day and I took lots of pictures.  I was on my way to Oklahoma City last week to do a training and as I sat in the airport preparing, I found the perfect picture to teach a tough lesson for us to truly understand.  

It’s hard for us to accept the love of our Father in Heaven.  We have a tendency to think that when God looks at us, he sees the sum total of all our mistakes and sinfulness.  We know he loves us but we can’t quite grasp how much.  As I was thinking about how to use this verse from Isaiah and teach the absolute love of the Father, my phone buzzed.  I answered the text and decided to look at pictures of Mr. Lewis, which is my new favorite thing to do!  I was scrolling through the Baptism pictures and zoomed in on one photo where in the midst of all the commotion, Lewis was looking straight up at his daddy and Jason was looking straight down at Lewis.  Their gaze was locked and each of them had a look of complete adoration on their face.  Lewis looked up with trust and love and Jason looked down with pride and complete and perfect love.  That picture perfectly captured what it’s really like when we turn to our Father and he looks down on his children.  I added that picture to the training and it was met with a powerful response because it’s a truth we all needed to see in living color.

I was chatting with some friends about this picture yesterday and one of my friends, a mom of young boys added to the story.  She said that one of her sons had lost his temper and hit her on the arm while calling her “mean mom”.  Quite a while later he came to her feeling very sad and gave her a hug and apologized for what he’d done.  She told us she  had already forgotten all about it and gone on with her day but she was so struck by how deeply it bothered him and how quickly she had dismissed it because it was just a “toddler moment” for her son.  We laughed as we stood there thinking about how different God’s perspective really is.  There are so many times we do things he really doesn't like but they aren’t permanent marks etched in his memory to be dredged up every time he thinks of us.

As we finish out this last week of Lent and head into Holy Week, it seems like the perfect time to ponder what the Father really sees when he looks at us.  Imagine his gaze and soak up his love and mercy.

A Seed To Plant:  Spend some time in prayer asking the Father to help you see how much he loves you.​

Blessings on your day!