God Sees the Whole Picture

"Now when these things begin to happen, look up and lift up your heads, because your redemption draws near."

Luke 21:28 (NKJV)

If you have ever flown in an aeroplane, you will know the strange experience of breaking through the clouds. From the ground, the sky looked grey and closed and oppressive. But at a certain altitude, you emerge into brilliant sunshine. The clouds are still there. But from above, they are a different thing entirely.

God wants to give us that kind of shift in perspective.

We spend so much of our lives at ground level, surrounded by the clouds of our immediate circumstances. The problem in front of us looks enormous because it fills our entire field of vision. The difficulty we are facing appears permanent because we cannot see beyond it. And we forget that God's view is not from ground level. He sees the whole picture.

The psalmist wrote: "The Lord will perfect that which concerns me.” That is not the wishful thinking of a person who has not been paying attention. It is the settled conviction of someone who has seen God work long enough to know that His view is larger than their own.

Jesus tells His disciples that when troubling things begin to happen, they should look up. Not look away. Not pretend the trouble is not there. Look up. Because looking up changes the frame. When you look up, you see not just the storm but the One who stands above it. You see not just the immediate chapter but the arc of a story that is moving toward a glorious conclusion.

The present difficulties of your life are real. I do not want to minimise them. But they are not the whole picture. God sees what is ahead. He sees how this chapter connects to the next one. He sees the purpose that is being worked out through this difficulty that you simply cannot yet see from where you are.

Look up today. Your redemption draws near. And the One who is orchestrating it all has not lost the thread.

Prayer: Lord, give me Your perspective today. Help me to look up from my immediate circumstances and see what You see. Remind me that You hold the whole picture and that Your purposes are being worked out even in what I cannot yet understand. In Jesus' name, Amen.

Pastor Ras
All Nations Community Church

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