When God looks down from heaven and observes our lives, what do you think he sees? Does he see only what we are now, or does he also see what we will become?
I recently visited Butchart Gardens, a botanical wonderland in Victoria, Canada. As I walked through the beautiful floral arrangements, it was hard to imagine that the place had once been a limestone quarry. But thanks to the vision and perseverance of one woman, Jennie Butchart, what was once an ugly piece of land was transformed into a space bursting with beauty.
This caused me to pause and consider how God looks at his children.
Just as that quarry had been turned into an ugly pit by years of mining, so the human soul has been tainted and damaged by sin. But God had the vision to look beyond what we were and see what he would transform us into.
Converting the barren quarry into lush gardens took a lot of work. In the same way, God has done everything necessary to restore us to what we were meant to be. He paid the penalty for sin so we could be reconciled to him. He gave the Holy Spirit to help us overcome the power of sin in our daily lives. And someday he will remove the presence of sin altogether. When God looks at his children, that is, anyone who has chosen to follow Christ, he doesn’t see only what we are now, but what we will one day become.
When we’re in the thick of the battle with our sinful nature, it’s easy to get discouraged and give up. Sometimes the changes we want to make feel so daunting that we shrink back from even trying. I bet that when Jennie Butchart first proposed her idea, people thought she was crazy. A garden in an exhausted quarry? How could anyone even think of such a thing? If she had listened to the negative talk or given up when problems arose, there would be no beautiful gardens to enjoy today.
Spiritual transformation requires vision and perseverance, but we can’t accomplish it on our own. God is with us every step of the way, moving us forward. He also knows we need encouragement. Just as he sees who we will be, he wants us to see it too. We need to keep that image before us and return to it again and again. God knows this, which is why the Bible is full of truths and promises to encourage and inspire us. He wants us to hold firmly to the vision of who we will become while recognizing that he is already changing us here and now.
Therefore, let’s never lose heart or give up. As the author of Hebrews writes,“Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful.” (Hebrews 10:23)