New Eyes
14 May 2023
Children always bring excitement into your life. What I find most exciting is that you get the see the world new all over again through their eyes. There is so much wonder; so much amazement. Everything is a new experience.
When my son was small, we had just moved back to the United States after living in Korea. One night we were driving and came upon one of those pop-up carnivals with the amusement rides. When you drive by, you look at the pretty lights, perhaps you can smell the popcorn, but you’ve seen hundreds and you probably keep going. Maybe you remember your childhood nostalgically and for a few fleeting moments you think about stopping and reliving some of your youth.
He had spent his life until that point in Korea and had never seen anything like this, it was totally new. When we pulled in and walked the grounds the place suddenly seemed filled with excitement. Watching his eyes sparkle with amazement at the beauty; his head darting from place to place watching all the movement and all the new smells, I had never seen his eyes so wide. It brought both my wife and I right back to our childhood.
He asked over and over again “What that!”
“What that!”
“A Farris Wheel”
“Wheeeeeeeeeel!”
“What that!”
“A Merry-Go-Round”
“Aaaaaaaaaahhh!”
“What that!”
“A popcorn stand”
“Mmmmmmm”
It was such a wonderful experience. His amazement was infections! It was so infectious it made my wife and I feel like children all over again. The whole place took on such a new persona.
It was no longer rickety rides we had seen a hundred times. It was once again a place of thrills, sparkles, incredible smells, and excitement. It made such an impact that nearly 30 years later, every time we see one of those carnivals, in unison my wife and I will say “Wheeeeeeeeel!”
We sometimes stop and walk the ground in the warm summer night air, looking at the lights. Smelling the smells. Reveling in the beauty and excitement of it all.
How often to we get to see the world in with fresh eyes? Isn’t it exciting? Isn’t it beautiful? Isn’t it awesome when you get to see something you’ve probably seen hundreds of times like this was the first time you’d ever experienced it?
Wouldn’t it be great to see things new again. We can! That’s our chance. We can have an entire new life from God; new life from Jesus. We get to be kids again experiencing life again for the first time.
Here’s what the Gospels say about this.
In John 3:3-7 it says
3 Jesus answered him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born oagain2 he cannot see the kingdom of God.” 4
Nicodemus said to him, “How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?” 5 Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. 6 That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. 7 Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’
This leads us to a new perspective on the passages in Romans.
Romans 6
What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? 2 By no means! We are those who have died to sin; how can we live in it any longer? 3 Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4 We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.
We DO get to see the world new again. What’s probably the most important part of that is how we begin to see ourselves.
It is the internet world now. We Google instead of the card catalog at the library. So where do you go when you have a question and what to hear other’s answers? Quora and YouTube. I wanted to see what others said about how Jesus had changed them when they were Born Again. I found answers ranging from drug addition to prison time, and those who lived a selfish life. Try a quick search and you’ll find testimony after testimony talking about their life before and after meeting Jesus.1
A lot of folks had talked about their life and conduct prior to meeting our Savior. I wondered, what is the root of such selfish behavior was? Why would people spend so much time putting others down? Why do people go out of their way to belittle others and minimize their accomplishments? Why do people get pleasure from harming someone else?
I found an article on a site called Optomistminds. It’s a site written by a group of psychologists, psychiatrists, and mental health professionals.
What they said was:
People often resort to wreck less or mean behavior to impress others or make them like them. Here is a similar case where your coworkers or boss may try to put someone down in order to show others who is the decision-making authority!
This is a behavior that is intended to make one feel good about their own selves rather than to actually put the other person down. Instead of making a real effort so that people actually like you, the individual belittles those around him or her to show others that they know how work is done and people listen to them.
Desire To Feel Superior
The best way most people know how to feel better is by putting others down. This happens in so many spheres of life. You might feel less attractive compared to someone else hence you make them feel less attractive by pointing out mistakes in them or telling them that pulling off such a look is not a big deal! You might be concerned how hard someone is working for a certain test so you tell them you knew a person who passed the exam without studying.
It is like you project your fears and insecurities on other people. 2
So that’s it. A lot of people are mean because they don’t feel good about themselves. They seem to either consciously or unconsciously feel they can elevate themselves by putting down others. One of the causes of that
is it’s hard to feel good about others if you don’t feel good about yourself.
The question I looked up on Quora was “Has Jesus changed your life, and in what way?” What I found was a lot of broken people who were abused and belittled themselves. They all seemed to take pleasure in abusing others prior to meeting Jesus.
In all the testimonies about how people were changed by God, I think the root was they finally felt good about themselves.
I think Colossians 3:5-10 explains this transformation:
5 Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry. 6 Because of these, the wrath of God is coming.[b] 7 You used to walk in these ways,
in the life you once lived. 8 But now you must also rid yourselves of all such things as these: anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips. 9 Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with its practices 10 and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator.
I think this really spells out why we are so different when we are born again. We are a new person. We finally see ourselves as verse 10 of that passage puts it “being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator.”
What a life changing moment that is. When we know that we are in the image of our Creator, how can we not have a better image of ourselves. If God loves us enough to make us like him, how can we not see ourselves with self-worth?
What a life changing concept that is. The realization that the one who created a universe has a personal interest in you specifically. To put that into perspective, there are over 7.5 BILLION people on earth. We orbit one star in our galaxy; a cloud of about 200 billion stars. So far, in the known universe. (that’s just the parts of the universe we see), it’s estimated to hold about 2 trillion galaxies. So, if each of those galaxies has 200 billion stars, then the total number of stars is really big. It’s a 4 followed by 23 zeros. Or 4 Sextillion stars! Ikeep coming back to it is that out of all these mindbogglingly large numbers, God takes a person interest in me.
In Luke 12:7 is says:
But even the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not therefore: ye are of more value than many sparrows.
When we finally realize the magnitude of God’s love and how much he did for you as a single person, it really
changes you.
Of course God loves us. In Ephesians 2:4–5 it says:
4 But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, 5 even when we were dead in our trespasses, unmade us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved—
That’s truly the moment when we start to see the world in with fresh eyes. That’s precisely it; when you know you’re loved and devote yourself back to Him, that’s when we are reborn. Doesn’t that change our entire perspective?
Oh what confidence we suddenly have.
Proverbs 3:26 says: For the LORD shall be thy confidence
Think about those you’ve looked up to. Those who’ve made a difference in your life. I’d be willing to bet dollars to donuts they had gone out of their way to make you feel better about yourself. The ones who seem to walk closest to God, are the ones who do exactly that. Make you realize your worth.
Confidence changes behavior.
There are common traits of a confident person. Even Forbes points these out.3
Confident people don’t go out seeking attention for themselves. They know the true power in their lives came from the Holy Spirit. Because of that they give glory to God, or they elevate those around them instead of themselves.
Confident people aren’t afraid to ask for help. We all know that life often brings trials. Belief in yourself says you know your limitations as well. You know that getting on your knees and asking God to step in is often needed to make it through many of the challenges we have in life. But also recognize that often the answer to that prayer comes in the form on another person sent our way.
Confident people are up for a challenge. They realize that each roadblock is a learning experience, and they know
God has your back gives you the strength to attempt challenges that others may back away from.
Two other things Forbes pointed out with confident people is they don’t pass judgment and they share the victories.
I think these two traits are result of the new vision of the world we receive when we are reborn. Maybe this is why:
We know that God loves us and that out of that giant universe, he loves us individually. But we also recognize that everyone around us is a creation of God. He loves them too. Yes. The Omnipotent Creator, having been here for billions of years, this Omnipotent Creator who’s been here since before time began, spent His personal time crafting you. He spent time to make you individually. He’s the master artist and created you, not as just any creation. He loved you enough to create you in His image.
What about everyone else? That means that the Omnipotent Creator also devoted his time to make them as well. You truly know this in your heart when you’re reborn. That’s part of the rebirth process. Not only do you see yourself as different, but you see others different as well. Created in His image means when we see each other, we see God.
Not only do we get new eyes when we are reborn, we get a new perspective of how we see each other. And with that we get an entirely new experience seeing the entirety of God’s creation.
1. https://www.quora.com/How-has-Jesus-changed-your-life
2. Putting Down Others To Feel Better(The psychology behind it) By OptimistMinds
Page last updated: 08/31/2022; https://optimistminds.com/putting-down-others-to-feel-better/
3. 12 Things Truly Confident People Do Differently; Travis Bradberry; https://www.forbes.com/sites/travisbradberry/2015/04/01/12-things-truly-confident-people-do-differently/?sh=4b27c2247661
