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What Would Happen if You Saw Jesus as He Really Is?

(John 6:22-63)

Our house plans were a few feet shy of the required minimum square footage. So we added a tiny office.

No window.

No vents.

More of a closet, really.

Or a cave.

Eighteen years later, that’s about to change.

A window is on order.

I’m already envisioning the office with a view.

My home project seems unrelated to where my head is spiritually . . . but that’s about to change too.

A quote from Ethel Kennedy captures my attention.

We feel like we ought to be able to write our own scripts to our lives, and sometimes we feel disappointed in God when life rewrites the plot.

I admire her honesty.

But I’m still considering her take.

Deciding if I agree. Or not.

I am disappointed in the plot, but I’m not disappointed in God.

My eyes wander over to yesterday’s journal entry.

I accept Your will in all that happened with Ron.

But that doesn’t mean I like it.

Hmm . . . maybe my take tracks more closely with Ethel’s than I care to admit.

That feels uncomfortable.

So I opt for what is comfortable – ignore the quote.

Which works.

Until I meet a question I can’t ignore.

Jesus is speaking here to some of His disciples, but I feel like He’s looking at me.

What would happen if you saw the Son of Man ascending to where he came from?

(John 6:62 MSG)

Some of these disciples will find out what would happen.

Because they will see Jesus ascend into the clouds.

They’ll experience, in part, a fulfillment of Isaiah’s prophecy.

Ah, you will see for yourself the beauty of the One who rules over all.

Your eyes will take in a land that stretches far beyond the horizon.

(Isaiah 33:17 VOICE)

Oh, to have stood with them, eyes following Jesus from earth up into the land far beyond the horizon.

Into eternity.

To have beheld Jesus as He really is.

The Connection between earth and heaven.

The One who weaves threads of eternal value into the fabric of our present circumstances.

I rewrite His question in my own words.

What would happen if you saw Me as I really am?

What would that change for you?

I reexamine the threads of His will I haven’t been crazy about.

Consider them less in the context of how they made me feel, and more in the context of their eternal significance.

How they changed my faith, my perspective, and me.

Sometimes it’s easier to identify eternally significant moments after the dust settles.

So what does this change for me?

I wonder if my windowless office situation is a parable of sorts.

Where I judge the plot, and maybe God, by what I see in my cubicle.

Weather, birds, and squirrels are out there in the backyard.

Busy tending to weather, bird, and squirrel business.

Whether I see them.

Or not.

Perhaps part of seeing Jesus as He really is, is believing there’s a lot more going on than what we see in our cubicles.