I listened to a sermon in December of 2018 from Pastor Victor at I5 city church I will never forget. It was one that talks about the importance of seeing things from God’s vantage point, from his perspective. I remember sitting in my home as I heard him speak about what it means to refocus our attention and see things from up-down instead of down-up.

You see the thing is in life the lens and filters we have in place is how we view and interact with the world around us. We see through our experiences, our pains, our triumphs, our upbringing, our biases, our ideologies, our successes, and failures. It is through these things we view life and choose how we will treat others and how we will approach the situations in our lives. The problem with not using God as our filter and lens is that we only operate based on what we see right in front of us forgetting that God sees beyond where we are. He has a different vantage point.

Vantage point: a different point of view, from a different perspective. In God’s case, he has the best vantage point, from above, he sees the end from the beginning. I found it interesting when I stumbled on the fact that the children of Israel had a different route aside from the red sea, but God didn’t let them take that path. I was stunned and intrigued by that. In Exodus 13 from verse 17-19, the bible says “when Pharaoh let the people go, God did not lead them on the road through the Philistine country, though that was shorter. For God said, “if they face war, they might change their minds and return to Egypt.” So, God led the people around the desert road towards the Red Sea.”

The reason this stood out to me is that it shows that God’s perspective is the full picture. For the children of Israel, if they were familiar with the route, they would have chosen the other route because it was shorter, but also logically because it did not have a sea that will stop them from crossing over. What did not make sense and what seemed to be unwise was the path God choose for them. The shorter path seemed logical, the best from our perspective but also God knew that from their lens and experiences they will quiver and retreat at the sign of war. So, in some ways, the path that seemed to make sense was also the path that would break them. God saw a better way, a way that did not look certain but allowed for the display of his power and also an opportunity to strengthen their faith and give them a new filter to make decisions from going forward. By that I mean, seeing God perform such a grand miracle like parting the red sea allows for them to have a filter that God can do the impossible as they make future decisions.

Whew, I feel like this can be a devotional topic, how to see things from God’s perspective; maybe I will be inspired to write that soon. But until then I want to encourage you to not approach life looking at what you see but to get into the habit of asking God, what is your take on this? What will you have me do? What path should I take? Which way is better? Which decision should I make? Not based on my feelings or my limited perspective of what is in front of me but based on your almighty point of view.

I wonder how different our lives will be when we shift our perspective to God’s vantage point?