Change the Lens

I’ve looked at this verse before but as I read Matthew yesterday it had a freshness that made me hmmm.

 Blessed are those who are pure in heart—they will see God.

Matthew 5:8

I read a lot of stuff. I read a lot of Christian stuff and some of it makes me very sad. I read Christians tearing into what other Christians do as if they themselves have perfection down pat.

I think I am blessed because I am an optimist, when I look at people, at situations, at what people do I see the best. My first thought is that they meant well. It has to be God’s work because cynicism is rife even in the Church. It affects the way I react and respond.

It makes me sad to see us criticising each other because we are supposed to be characterised by love. It hurts to see us disagreeing on minor things such as whether we use a piano or guitars, or if we stand and kneel or stand and sit, or if our ministers wear robes or jeans or a suit or if we raise our hands or keep them folded, what translation we use, whether we sing hymns or other songs.

I commented on a blog yesterday that God is big enough to have room for all the minor bits of our belief – minor in comparison with just how enormously beyond our comprehension He is.

One body, one Spirit. The stuff we all believe is much more important than the stuff we disagree on. The Cross, the Resurrection, the Holy Spirit’s work are surely enough to unite us.

Jesus: ³⁴ So I give you a new command: Love each other deeply and fully. Remember the ways that I have loved you, and demonstrate your love for others in those same ways. ³⁵ Everyone will know you as My followers if you demonstrate your love to others.

John 13:34-35

The pure in heart will see God. I wonder if as well as a promise of a reward it also means that when we seek to be pure we see God in each other and respond with love instead of seeing only fault and failure. If we take off the blinkers of prejudice, criticism, fear, and worry looking instead through the perfect lens that the Holy Spirit creates in us when we get a new heart. The lens that is in Jesus’ eyes and sees as He sees.