Perspective

Look at the night skies: Who do you think made all this? Who marches this army of stars out each night, counts them off, calls each by name—so magnificent! so powerful!—and never overlooks a single one? Isaiah 40:26 The Message

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As we approach the end of the year I have been pondering the past two years in light of this word, perspective, especially in as we stand on the threshold of 2022.

Word Web defines the word perspective as:

A way of regarding situations or topics etc. Consider what follows from the positivist perspective–position, view, orientation. Bird’s eye view, cutting edge, forefront, futurism, light, panoramic view, paradigm, sight, straddle, vanguard, world view.

The appearance of things relative to one another as determined by their distance from the viewer–linear perspective–appearance, visual aspect.

Our limited perspective

I suppose most of us view the last two years as chaotic. I don’t know about everyone else, but as I stepped into 2020, I did it with high hopes, expecting miraculous and possibly mind-boggling events.

Well, I certainly got mind-boggling!

Worldwide pandemic shutdown was definitely not on my radar, especially accompanied with all the fear and unhinged panic that ensued.

But…

And this “but” is a big one. I have to ask at this point (some two years later) “Did any of this worldwide uproar take God by surprise?”

Obviously, not.

And, of course, that brings me to the note I want to conclude this year on…

God’s Perspective

And for God’s perspective I think it is best if we look up, yes?

For that I go to one of my very favorite Bible passages, Isaiah Chapter 40.

Isaiah was a Hebrew prophet who was believed to have lived about 700 years before the birth of Jesus Christ. Born in Jerusalem, Israel, he was said to have found his calling as a prophet when he saw a vision in the year of King Uzziah’s death.

In Chapter 40, Isaiah writes:

 The grass withereth, the flower fadeth: but the word of our God shall stand for ever. O Zion, that bringest good tidings, get thee up into the high mountain; O Jerusalem, that bringest good tidings, lift up thy voice with strength; lift it up, be not afraid; say unto the cities of Judah, Behold your God! Behold, the Lord God will come with strong hand, and his arm shall rule for him: behold, his reward is with him, and his work before him.

Isaiah 40:8-10 kjv

In Fearful & Unexpected Places

In these past two fear-filled years, part of what has kept my heart calm are those words, “But the word of our God shall stand for ever.”

In Unexpected Places I have learned to look up, focus my eyes on the Eternal God, and His Eternal Word.

When all around me is crumbling?

The Word of God is my unmoving fortress, and the words Jesus spoke–my Rock.

Isaiah continues,

Who hath directed the Spirit of the Lord, or being his counsellor hath taught him? With whom took he counsel, and who instructed him, and taught him in the path of judgment, and taught him knowledge, and shewed to him the way of understanding? Behold, the nations are as a drop of a bucket, and are counted as the small dust of the balance: behold, he taketh up the isles as a very little thing.

isaiah 40:13-15 kjv

God Is In Charge

Sounds like God is still in control, no matter what “the nations” do, or don’t do, yes?

In light of that truth, Isaiah gives some excellent advice:

Lift up your eyes on high, and behold who hath created these things, that bringeth out their host by number: he calleth them all by names by the greatness of his might, for that he is strong in power; not one faileth.

ISAIAH 40:26 KJV

Unexpected Places

Yes, we do live in tumultuous times. It seems as though things are moving faster and faster, and it gets harder and harder to keep our wits about us.

And here’s my final word for 2021.

Though the world around us convulse and shake, and though we find ourselves standing in unexpected places, not of our making, or what we had planned?

God still reigns! His Word still stands eternal in the heavens. Hold on to that truth and don’t let go. Whatever rollercoaster rides await us in 2022? The LORD Almighty will be there also, ready to strengthen us, guide us, and lead us still further on.

 27 Why sayest thou, O Jacob, and speakest, O Israel, My way is hid from the Lord, and my judgment is passed over from my God?

28 Hast thou not known? hast thou not heard, that the everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary? there is no searching of his understanding.

29 He giveth power to the faint; and to them that have no might he increaseth strength.

30 Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall:

31 But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.

isaiah 40:30-31 kjv

He calls each one by name!

All images from the Hubble website and in the public domain.