I love this thought from A.W. Tozer: “We should see God at the center, and everything else just at the edges.” Can you imagine being so consumed by God that anything that was not God appeared only in your peripheral vision, and slightly blurry at that? This is the goal of my life and for the life of every true disciple of Jesus. When Christ walked the earth, He did so with His focus firmly and always on the Father. He made it clear that the things He did were only because He saw the Father doing those same works (John 5:19). As people-centric as Jesus is and was, those same people still were only on the edges of His vision. He lived His life so consumed by God that nothing could compromise His mission.
Of course being only in the periphery of the vision of Jesus is still somehow miraculously being fully in His sight at the same time. He sees us through the lens of God. In essence, He looks through the beauty, glory, and uncontestable character of God to see us. When we are surrounded by the holiness of God, how could we ever look as anything less than worthy to our King? It’s mind-boggling to consider.
This is the model for how we should live our lives as well. We should have our lives so centered, and our eyes so fixed, on God that we see everyone through the lens of His beauty and holiness. Every soul that has ever lived or ever will is of unsurpassable worth in the eyes of God. Since our eyes are looking through His, it means we also must consider everyone of infinite value. God values the most evil, vile person in our eyes with the same love that He values you. He sees no difference in the person. We are all created in His image. This is a hard teaching; we often don’t want to love the unlovable.
But what if we were so consumed with Jesus that we no longer put artificial classifications on others? What if we loved them regardless of their actions, just as God loves us regardless of our own sins? When we devote ourselves to prayer and studying the Word of God, He will become all we see. Everything else will drift to the edges. We’ll see Jesus first and then everything else in relation to how He sees it.
Why not begin practicing this today? Concentrate on seeing Jesus directly in front of you wherever you go. Focus on the way he looks at you with such incredible love and compassion. Spend time contemplating how that feels. Keep those feelings and that image at the forefront of your mind as you go throughout your day. You won’t look at people the same. You won’t see your life in the same way. This is how we were meant to live. Everything changes when we keep Jesus at the center.