"The renewed mind is the canvas on which the Spirit of God can paint."—Bill Johnson
On top of everything else, Jesus was an artist, too.
He was continually painting pictures with words meant to awaken weary minds. Even if a thesaurus had been around in those days, there was no need for one, because Jesus, the Word made flesh, had all of the right words, at just the right time, and especially for every “I don’t get it" moment experienced by His followers — then and now. To help us see the Big picture through the fog and see life with a heavenly perspective, Jesus didn’t do boring lectures but told engaging stories by painting a bunch of word pictures for real people — farmers, homeowners, shopkeepers and people who liked fishing and being outdoors. People like us, and out-of-this-world words like these:
“The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field…"
“The kingdom of heaven is like like a treasure a man discovered in a field. In his excitement, he sold everything he owned to get enough money to buy the field—and get the treasure, too!"
“The kingdom of heaven is like a merchant seeking beautiful pearls…"
“The kingdom of heaven is like a dragnet that was cast into the sea and gathered some of every kind…"
When all we see is what’s right in front of us and fret and wonder, Jesus is always thinking bigger picture. Much bigger. His purpose behind these multi-colored descriptions of getting a heavenly perspective on things is not to mindlessly float away into a la-la land that’s out there somewhere and ignore reality. Instead, it's to bring that right and perfect perspective of “the earth is the LORD’s and all that is in it” into the often unhinged craziness of daily responsibilities and decisions, and especially into headlines that would try to add fuel to fear and throw water on faith. To get us to think, to see in the midst of it all: “Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.”
And the longer I go on this journey, the more I desire that Lord's Prayer perspective above most everything else. It's not a one-and-done request, either. Just about every day, I am right there with blind Bartimaeus:
“Jesus asked him, ‘What do you want me to do for you?’ The blind man answered, ‘Teacher, I want to see You.’”
—Mark 10:51, New Century Version
I want to see what matters, because I’m blinded way too often by all the wrong things that relentlessly try to cloud “the Kingdom of God is like” big picture and distort the right perspective.
And so, I like to imagine that in reply to my plea, if He were to meet me and my Bartimaeus desire on that roadside today, and knowing how much I enjoy taking photos, just maybe Jesus would paint a picture that looks something like this:
“The walk of faith is like a man who went for a walk with his camera, looking for something beautiful. But he had no set-it-and-forget-it autofocus feature because it’s a walk that requires continual, hands-on (re)focus to bring clarity to confusing things, wrong perspectives, and loud distractions. It is a lifelong discipline that leans on Trust, and the Truth of who I AM, and My endless love for you, and not on your own understanding. It is like continually adjusting the zoom lens until what is fuzzy becomes clear and the Subject is in focus while the background fades away. Your eye’s attention is drawn to the one thing that matters. Beautiful! So, keep going, live your life well, never give up, and as you go, ’set your mind and keep focused habitually on the things above—the heavenly things—not on things that are on the earth which have only temporal value.’”
It's a new day…and it’s really good to know that the Artist is still at work.
“We can, by choice and our actions, invite God to be present in our mind. Or, we can close the door to Him. It all depends on what kind of mind we want to cultivate. The goal is to have a mind in which the glorious Father of Jesus is always present and gradually crowds out every distorted belief, every destructive feeling, every misguided intention … God is never more than a thought away!”
—John Ortberg
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