Lord Of All

I’ve talked about Steve and Alberta Kelly’s dogs before. They’re not just regular dogs. These dogs are hardship cases. Every one of them has a story - one nearly died of exposure as a puppy; one has been shot with a shotgun; one, hit by a car. The vet fixes them up, and they adopt them. Funny thing about all these dogs: They all live together, but they don’t fight. As a group they're kind of laid back, easy-going bunch - just kind of glad to be alive! They have a perspective on life that many dogs don't have. Now, they view the world through the eyes of hard-up critters who have received human kindness.

Have you ever thought about the way people see things? For instance, everyone tilt you heads back and look straight up for a few seconds. Have you ever considered how everything looks to a baby? This week, a pair of parents said their 7 month old only gets to see where he’s been, never where he’s going. A baby’s view must be very boring. When he’s resting, where does he look? Straight up. So lights are those things that make it impossible to see anything else. Grownups exist only from the waist up. Rooms are familiar because of their ceiling tiles and light fixtures.

Then one day, they sit up, they look down, and they discover that there’s a whole other world below 3 feet. And they’d better get used to it, because until they start school, everything is going to be that tall. When you’re 2½ feet tall, your whole world is pretty short. Now grownups exist only from the waist down. For a toddler, everything that looks interesting or like it might taste good is just inches out of reach. That’s why they learn to climb.

Many of you might not go to sleep tonight if you looked too long at a close-up of a dust mite. Most everyone has thousands of these little beauties living in their mattresses. They’re just too small to see. Thing is, the perspective of a microscope makes us think about them a little differently!

Ever since the attack by terrorists 19 days ago, perspectives have changed. More people are realizing how precious life is. More people want to be around their family members. People are being careful to say, “I love you” when they leave each other. Right and wrong seems a little clearer to some. People who haven’t prayed for years are praying and looking up to God for help. As a nation, our perspective has changed on a lot of things, suddenly.

I used to see life through the eyes of a single person. Now that's changed. I used to judge other people's parenting through the eyes of a person with no children. Not anymore. Experiences in life can help you see life differently. The experience of accepting Jesus does that too; at least, it's supposed to. It's supposed to change the way we look at life:

(1 Cor 3:3-4) "You are still worldly. For since there is jealousy and quarreling among you, are you not worldly? Are you not acting like mere men? For when one says, "I follow Paul," and another, "I follow Apollos," are you not mere men?"

We're not supposed to be "mere men." That’s not “mermen” – it means Christians aren't supposed to be “just like everyone else,” because we have Someone inside of us, in charge of us, Who affects the way we look at life. And Who is that Someone? (JESUS)

One reason Jesus deserves to be in charge of our lives, besides the fact that He’s the Son of God, is that Jesus has seen the world from every angle. First, it was all created through Him. He saw it before it was shaped. He formed it and fashioned it. He invented the aardvark and the kiwi and the duckbilled platypus – maybe He laughed as He did those. But then, he did something an artist usually doesn’t do: He stepped inside of His artwork. He came and lived on earth and looked at it all through the eyes of first a baby, then a child, then a man. And now, Jesus is looking at earth again, from the perspective of heaven, watching how we’re doing at carrying on His work.

Jesus has looked at earth from every possible angle. You know what? This morning, I want to see the world through "Jesus eyes." I want to see things from His perspective. I want to think about them the way He does. I want to see earth and its people with the wisdom of the Creator. Jesus has a better view than we do. He looks at the tough things in life with the best view - an eternal perspective - a point of view we can gain this morning if we'll look closely into Jn 5.