Tonight my husband called me into the living room to look out the window at the moon. I am a night sky lover. Even when I walk Daisy my eyes are pointed to the heavens instead of my steps. I tilt my head back and I am in awe of the mighty God who created this vast glory for my eyes smile upon.
I look out at the glorious moon and I can see a ring encircling the bright reflection. I take a seat and look out the window at a different view and something wondrous beholds my vision. I'm captivated. As I look to the moon I see a cross. It's something you can't miss. I say, "Isn't it so amazing how God placed a cross right over the moon?" My husband isn't seeing it and I am wondering, "How in the world can you be missing the cross?"
He is standing. I am sitting. How is our view different? We are apparently looking through the very same window. He is seeing right through the glass and I am looking through the screen.
I've noticed the cross many years now and I have never questioned what I have witnessed. I just assumed it was there for all to see. But tonight as my husband was there my words caught in his heart. I asked, "Wait, don't you see the cross? It's always there." He takes my hand and says, "Stand up and look from here". No cross. Just the bright moon. He says, "Now look through the screen again". I do and what do you know? There's the cross.
I ask now the question stirring in my mind. "How is that happening?" So...my husband preceded to tell me I see the cross through the screen because a screen is made in a cross pattern. It's weaved a certain way and when you look out it gives you a different view of an object.
Now, why it has taken me so long to figure this out is beyond me. I'm just gonna say, it's all part of the journey. But, it's it the coolest to learn something new every day?
So, my mind as not yet stopped churning. I'm sitting here thinking to myself, so if I change my vision, my outlook, my focus, I'm gonna see things much different. That screen is a like a filter. It's going to not only protect me from all that tries to distract me, but protect others from my own human viewpoint. I am to see everything as if the cross is the first thing that crosses my vision.
Without the screen, the moon, yes, in all its glory, is still the moon, but through the screen, it's even more beautiful.
I have heard people for years say, we should hide behind the cross. Now, I get that. We are to allow God to shine before us. But what if we looked at that a little different? What if instead, we simply said, we need to place the cross at the forefront of our vision? We need to see everything through the cross. After all, isn't that how Jesus sees the world? Isn't that what grace is all about?
If I took each step seeing the cross before me, love would fill my vision. Bitterness, anger, jealous and all that jazz wouldn't matter one iota. I have to wear glasses to correct my vision. Sometimes getting the right prescription is difficult. But in this case, maybe I just needed to be attended to by a different king of Doctor.
All this time I thought I was seeing a cross as I looked to the moon. I would look up and simply say, "Beautiful, just magnificent", and my praises would begin. See, I want focused on the moon, but upon the cross. That's what caught my eye. Everytime I seen it from my bedroom window all I focused on was the cross and it's grace. Oh the beauty of it. The glorious shine that kept me gazing for hours until I fell asleep. Now I can remember, it is the cross I need to focus on. I need to set that Christ-screen before me.
How many days in my walk to I ignore the cross or just lose sight of it? Let me tell you, there are many. I have to totally change my focus and I must train myself to see the cross before all that crosses my vision.
What about you? Have you learned anything new about the Lord this week? What about Him amazes you? Everything about Him just simply and utterly amazes me. He never ceases to teach me. He is there always opening my eyes to something new. Tonight is just happened to be the cross. I now have a better view. I gotta tell ya, from where I'm sitting, it looks pretty breathtaking.
"Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfector of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the thorn of God." Hebrews 12:1-3
"But if from there you seek the Lord your God, you will find him if you look for him with all your heart and with all your soul." Deuteronomy 4:29
