I’m across the river at Skamania Lodge, staring at the hills
and waters in the distance. I’m enjoying a day with my sweetheart unhindered by
our children, and it seems whenever there is time to rest we end up instead of
resting, facing sadness that we have set aside in our every day lives, things
that we don’t have time to mourn when we are drowning in babies and chores; relationships that never seem to fully mend,
separation, loss, never being fully aligned with people we love. It feels
incorrect that we each hold our own view, it causes upset and misunderstanding .
If we were all clairvoyant wouldn’t we avoid so much pain? But we are not, we
are all frontiersmen in our own lives. We are the first to step out onto our
own metaphorical western wilderness and forge through the unknown. We are unique, each of us, there never was
and never will be again a person who sees your world, your struggles with your
own personal flaws and attributes affecting your every thought. The choices you
make and, that have been made for you, lead you down a path that is new and
specific to you. Others may be walking closely along your path but no matter
how close, the mountains in the distance are at a slightly different angle to
them compared to where you stride, the trees a different height. And not only
do we deal with difference in perspective but sin is now a barrier, a lens that
we see truth through, and that lens does well to alter our view, on love, on
God. Our view gathers dust and is cracked, for some their image may appear
doubled and multi-faceted, stretched and warped and at times our lens is
covered in soot from flame of destruction, divorce, death, loss, abuse. We need a view with no lens. We need the
mountains themselves to tell us what they look like, where they rise and fall,
where we might find water and shelter on our journey, for when you are blind
you walk by faith or stand perfectly still, trapped by fear. If we look to
others to share their view we only layer on their lens over our own, seeing
bits and pieces of the true image but not much more. We need an image unveiled,
unhindered but the lens will not be lifted from our eyes in this life, our only
hope is a faith in a divide description, His perspective imparted. For now we
are the child sitting in a worn and unwashed atrium straining to see the night
sky. We gain little improvement to our
view by asking the fellow atrium dweller what they see, we must call out to the
gardener and ask what is in His gaze. And this is a poor metaphor for now we
trust not in just the perspective of another human with a better view but in
the words of the one who not only sees perfectly but made all with His own
hands. We inquire of Him about a thing that he has held in his palm, molded, and
sculpted every curve and gap, every stubble and
spire. His word is a letter describing the true view, the unaltered
image of love, from the one with the strongest most possible apprehension on
the subject. The gardener calls us to leave the atrium, to give up the safe
walls, but also the grimy windows and stale air. We only gain by sacrifice.
Sacrifice of the oh so precious, of our children, our wives and husbands, our
pride, our safety, their safety, and the ever strongly clutched to, comfort
zone. What is so commonly called “faith” can be de-Christianized by re-naming
it trust. Trust that what He says is really true. He says these things we
sacrifice are small and insignificant compared to what is to be gained by
losing them.
2 Cor 4:17 “For this light momentary affliction is preparing
for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison”
So,
white knuckles grip tight in fear, these loves, these loved ones, until ……… we
choose to trust His view, and believe that He is God. Then release, the blood
returns in deluge through the flesh, reviving what was asphyxiating and we leave
the atrium walls to join the Creator in the peace that truth produces. Our loss
becomes prodigious gain.
….Blessed are those who
mourn, for they will be comforted, Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for
righteousness, for they will be satisfied. Blessed are the pure in heart, for
they shall SEE God….
