A child, living and seeing in the moment, wants the candy now.
A parent, with slightly wider vision, sees no appetite
for dinner and another cavity in the teeth.
We children, during our turn on earth, see (and want) the material,
physical world. Our Father and our Elder Brother see eternal
purpose and the things we must gain to return to them.
Therefore, Christ says to us, “lay up for yourselves treasures
in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt” (Matthew
6:20). What an
example was his life — free from the things that the world
calls great, but filled with the light and life that lasts
long after earth’s glories fade!
Christ saw all things in their true perspective, in the eternal
frame of reference. Thus those who broke laws, who went
wrong, who hurt Him, who crucified Him were not enemies
to be fought but friends who needed help — brothers and
sisters whom he had come to save.
It was as though Christ, even with His feet on the earth, preserved
His vision from above so that he saw more than the moment
and based His feelings and His actions on eternal rather
than on mere earthly realities.
The enemies, in His frame of reference, were never the people
He had come to save. Instead, the enemies were always
the evils that could hurt those people and that
could block the salvation He sought for them. Hypocrisy,
greed, sin — these were the destroyers, the things Christ
came to subdue.
Try for a moment to glimpse things from His perspective — a
perspective of being fully aware of the realities of the
premortal life, the spirit world,
the degrees of glory:
·
evil becomes
a need for help
·
enemies
become brothers and sisters who misunderstand
·
death becomes
birth
·
leadership
becomes service
·
God becomes
Father
·
children
become respected brothers and sisters
·
pain and
opposition become eternal organizations
·
weakness
becomes humility and potential spiritual strength
·
earthly
riches become mind-diverting things with no value unless
they are used to help and serve
·
wisdom,
understanding and intelligence become part of the eternal
soul — things that last
·
faith, hope, and charity become passports back to the Father.
One reason that Christ’s life was so different from any man’s
is that He saw the whole circle of eternal life — 360
degrees — while we so often see only the narrow slice
of the moment.
Next week we will look at the priority the Lord placed on families.
