You're on a bus, looking out the window, just appreciating the gorgeous view as you roll down the highway. The sun is shining and the sky is the perfect shade of blue. There are forests rolling into mountains and it all looks amazing. Up ahead you get a brief glimpse of a beautiful snow-capped mountain, but it is quickly hidden from view by the trees beside the road. You look intently for another glimpse, and you see flashes through the trees but never the full picture. Finally the trees clear, but there are hills and forests in the way, still partially blocking the view. It takes another 5 minutes before the trees and hills clear to give you the full picture- that perfect view revealing something truly spectacular.
That is exactly what happened to me. It is what prompted me to start writing this blog on the bus trip down to Victoria for my hockey game. It was a vivid illustration for a passage I read earlier today from Philippians 3:
" I want to know Christ—yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, attaining to the resurrection from the dead. Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already arrived at my goal, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus. All of us, then, who are mature should take such a view of things." - Philippians 3:10-15 NIV
When I was trying to see the mountain, I was reminded of this passage, especially the part about forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead. I was straining to see the mountain view so much that I didn't even look at the trees that were getting in the way because I was looking beyond them, enjoying the brief glimpses given to me of the prize beyond. In the same way, as Christians, sometimes we get distracted by the trees of the material world- money, power, fame, lust- but when we get a glimpse of Jesus' true nature- in a church service, in the bible, or on a friend's couch- we can't help but look past the temptations that lie directly before us as we look ahead to that beautiful moment when we will get the full picture and see Jesus.
In fact, to further my example, this is the reason I was looking out the window in the first place. It is the reason I had my headphones blasting praise music, looking past the seductive R-rated movie playing on the bus because it doesn't compare to the beauty of creation all around me. And I am convinced that the wonders of creation are only the first glimpses of the beauty of Jesus Christ who died to save me from a life of sin and death. This is why I worship and why I cannot wait for the day I get to see Him face to face for the first time.
No comments:
Post a Comment