To See What Is Not Yet
This weekend I traveled to California to watch the marching band compete in their final competition of the season. As I sat in the stands, I witnessed the culmination of four months of practice that began back in July with students who couldn't march in a straight line and play their instruments at the same time. The finished show was a combination of music, visual effects, dancers (or guard if you are band savvy), percussion and instruments. It was a moving, breathing, flowing, marching picture of what had been inside the minds of the band directors since before the first note was played.
It was amazing.
It was beautiful.
To see WHAT IS NOT YET as though it IS requires the eyes of an Image Bearer.
It is how God sees.
And we who bear his image have this ability.
This vision of seeing can be found in a project at work or home. An assignment. A new discipline.
And especially in how we look at people.
In the Bible we see how God looked at his Image Bearers and called things that were not yet, as if they were. Gideon was hiding out in fear, yet the angel came and addressed him as a mighty warrior. While David was still a shepherd boy, the youngest in the family of important brothers, God had Samuel anoint him as king. Esther, a slave girl, became the queen of Persia – for such a time as this. Moses – a murderer and a fugitive was told to speak before Pharaoh and lead a nation from bondage.
God loves to name destiny and purpose that is still hidden and unformed as if it were reality. He invites us to do the same.
Recently I have been having conversations with several of my children who are in positions of leadership about this ability to see What Is Not Yet as though it IS. As leaders, it is a simple thing to point out what is wrong in another person. To find fault. To complain
.It is another to speak to Potential. Destiny. Purpose. To see What Is Not Yet and lead people to make it a reality.
This is the task of an Image Bearer.
Where do you currently need to see WHAT IS NOT YET as though it IS?