It was nothing like they’d expected. Nothing like what they’d waited for.
Instead of a conquering king, they got a baby born to peasants. They’d longed for a savior the world would recognize as their leader, but they got an arrival so unsettling for those in power that it led to mass murder and a family on the run. Expecting an agent of change who would overturn those who oppressed them, they got an ally living among them and an advocate for overturning the state of their own hearts.
Jesus was nothing like he was supposed to be for the humans who’d long awaited his arrival and their own deliverance.
But he was precisely what they – and we – needed.
In hard seasons, we humans obsess over what we think will fix “it” – whatever “it” is. We problem solve for what ails us, troubleshoot like we have a clue, and we wait for “it” to be fulfilled in the manner we see as best for our lives.
But, that’s the rub with hard circumstances, isn’t it? In the midst of it all, perspective isn’t easy to come by. And when we have a clouded perspective, our ideas of what will fix “it” are predictably off the mark.
Skewed perspective is hard to navigate in the relatively short-term struggles in life. The day your child’s principal calls on the same afternoon the mechanic calls about your car on the same evening that you burned dinner. There’s a reason that on days like that, standard advice is to just go to bed and it will be better in the morning.
But, what about when dawn arrives – over and over – and nothing is better? Or changed. Or delivered.
Perspective is more complicated in the long seasons where burden upon burden is heaved on our shoulders. The illness that just keeps wreaking havoc with no sign of progress despite countless treatments. The financial hole that just keeps getting deeper no matter how much you feel like you’ve stopped digging. The marriage that feels so far gone day after day no matter how much you have prayed.
When our perspective on life – our focus on our values, our faith, our family – when it is clouded, we are set up to miss God’s movement. He tells us he’s on our side. He tells us he will not abandon us. He tells us – and shows us – that he sees us.
But a clouded perspective blurs truth. And when truth is out of focus, we risk missing the hand of the one who loves us most at work in ways far better than what we could ever ask for or imagine.
If I’ve heard it – and said it – once, I’ve heard it – and said it – one million times in recent days. This time last year, I could have never seen what was coming in 2020. I actually spent one of the early weekends of the year creating – wait for it – vision boards with a group of friends.
I had very specific – very happy – expectations for what I thought my new year would bring.
And then it didn’t.
In a matter of less than 48-hours in March, we collectively experienced life whiplash going from normal life to homeschooling, wearing a face covering if we had to go out in public, and anxiously watching our world process a global pandemic.
Just when we all thought we’d hit the apex of awful, our country exploded with racial tension and dialogue – necessary, but painful dialogue – that rocked the spring and summer.
And don’t even get me started on the presidential election and transition that inexplicably are worse than anticipated.
This doesn’t even account for personal hurts many of us experienced in 2020. It is shocking to me to count the number of friends who lost parents, jobs, marriages, and more during this incredibly horrible year.
Burden upon burden upon burden.
And we know what that does to perspective. In these darkest of seasons, it is easy to lose hope that God sees us let alone that he is present in our day-to-day lives.
Thankfully – mercifully, really – God’s redemptive hand touches all things. Not just the wonderful ones. His provision for his people came in a way they never dreamed – and frankly a way they would never see as provision.
Until some of them did about 30 years later.
For centuries, God’s people awaited redemption. But, what they thought redemption would look like – conquering their tormentors and elevating their nation – was nothing like what God had in mind.
See, God’s perspective is never blurred. He’s never overwhelmed. He has the entire arc of mankind in focus.
And he is actively present in the day-to-day. Even the days when it seems this broken world is winning, when our sin – or the sins of others – shatters our hearts and our families and our institutions. He is there.
He far exceeded the expectations of the children of Israel because instead of rescuing one nation, he saved us all. Instead of restoring an earthly kingdom, he set into motion the establishment of an eternal kingdom that will never end.
What they thought would fix “it” fell so far short of what God did for them – and for all of mankind – instead.
So, when we are in hard seasons and perspective is off, when we are walking through struggles that it seems God is oblivious to, when the 2020- and 2021-like hits just keep coming turning everything we know on its edges, let’s stop. Stop for a moment – just a moment is all it takes – and remind ourselves that he does see us. He is actively participating in our lives. He cares enough for us to provide – so much so that he won’t just give the simple solutions to us that will fix “it” in our basic human minds.
Nope, he’s got bigger plans.
The madness of this life at this time does not interrupt or distract him, and he’s laying the groundwork for what we really need. Whether we know it or not.
