I have to imagine that God’s perspective – his way of seeing things, is quite a bit different than our perspective on life. After all, he has perfect vision. . . Perfect hindsight all the way back to the beginning, and perfect foresight all the way to eternity!

When we think of God’s perspective on our lives, I have to believe that he loves us and wants the very best for us, just as we do for our own children.   But sometimes our kids have a completely different perspective from us, and likewise, we have a completely different perspective than God. Let’s look at a brief story that will help us understand God’s, ours and our children’s perspectives in a whole new, fun way.  

I was about 30 years old and looking for land where I could build a new home. As I drove past 12 acres of flat, treeless land I phoned the realtor to say I wasn’t interested. He responded by asking if I had walked on the land and I said, “No, I just drove past it.”  

The wise old realtor said, “Mark, you looked AT the picture.  You need to get INSIDE the picture and you’ll get a whole new view.”  

So I drove back, got out of my car and walked onto the lot where my house would someday sit.  From there, with a whole new perspective of looking out, instead of looking in, I fell in love with the view and bought the lot.  It was an amazing perspective changer!

In similar fashion, many of us get so busy, so locked inside our own bubble, our own lives, our own way of seeing things, that we get blindsided because we only see things from our own perspective.  Here, we are IN the picture and looking out.

But the people outside of your bubble are looking AT your picture and see your life from a different perspective. And many times they can help us if we just have ears to hear.  Perhaps this is one reason why counselors, advisors and pastors can be so valuable.

Jesus may have been thinking about this when he told the parable about the seed that fell on the hard ground.  We know that seed needs soil and water in order to grow, and hard ground has neither.

Our Christian faith is like a seed, and remarkably, we can choose to plant it in good soil. And we can choose to keep our seed watered with good messages from our local church and from podcasts, books and videos from great leaders such as Timothy Keller, Joyce Meyer, Tony Evans or Andy Stanley just to name a few.  

But we have to want to hear what they say.  We need to be open to seeing our lives from a new perspective.  We have to be willing to drive back to the lot, get out of our car and go for a walk.   And when we do, ohhh, what a difference!

Let’s make a decision today and allow ourselves to see our lives from a whole new perspective!  God’s perspective of our lives, and the plans he has in store for us must be amazing.  I’ll bet you’ll like the view!