Hoping Together
Colossians 1:27 KJV
(27) To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory:
It’s interesting how being a parent can provide a totally different perspective on how maybe God sees us and the reasons why He treats us the way He does. This verse from Colossians has always been a source of encouragement for me with its declaration of Christ being in me and the hope that I can have as a result. For some reason, though, maybe because I’ve been seeing things through parental eyes lately, I saw this a bit differently just now. I saw the hope referred to here as not just a hope that is ours, but a hope possessed by the Father when He looks at us. He’s not just seeing our hang-ups, failures and ugliness, but He is looking way past the ‘now’ to the ‘what-will-be’. He knows our limitless potential because of His Son’s residence within, and will not allow His love for or belief in us to be constrained by those things that might constrain anyone else in their attitude towards us. When He looks at us His love is motivated by a glorious hope to forgive, restore and provide for everything our success will require, no matter how much we may or may not deserve it at the moment. Based upon who is living on the inside, the brightness of our future’s image for Him is kept undimmed.
Before I had any of my own, I had very little tolerance for the acting out of other people’s children. From my naïve perspective, it was obviously just a discipline problem or the child was just a little brat. I would see a toddler repeatedly dropping a utensil at a public restaurant and find myself with negative thoughts about him/her and their ignorant and lazy parents. Little did I know that three long term lessons were coming my way. The first of our children had to experience my lack of experience and ignorance with regard to these things the most as my opinions about children began to take a bit of an alternate route. My understanding has gone from feeling that it was my duty to find what was wrong and somehow correct it, to recognizing the incredible potential within and doing my best to nurture that. Instead of responding with disgust and disfavor to the bad behavior, there is a growing understanding that in spite of this negative episode there really is a future for this child, not because of what is presently being observed on the outside, but because of what I believe to be resident on the inside. Hope has become a large part of my experience, and while there is so much more to know about its implementation, there is much less tendency to let the negative behavior disrupt the stance of hope and certainty that no matter what they look like at the moment, they are destined for excellence and a fulfilling and productive life. Future vision has enabled present vision to direct the actions from me that have the best chance of helping them on their life journey. Love has begun to rise above the desperate doubting reactions to make hope its foundation for proactive belief actions.
In a growing relationship with the Father, I believe this understanding is a necessary one, that His gaze in not a disgusted, judgmental and condemning one, no matter the magnitude of our transgression or the goofiness of our bad hair day. Just because we may have been born into a certain culture with a set of genes that predisposes us to certain tendencies doesn’t mean that we’re disqualified from being a Christ residence. Where He has come to dwell there is an entrance into this place of God hope, where the very God of creation has committed Himself to the proactive nurturing of all it will take for Jesus to be completely formed in us and our kingdom potential fulfilled. From the aftermath of our own poor choices, better ones can be made from an assurance that our hope is not alone; it’s standing right there with the Father Himself.
