Anyone who has passed through the Missouri Ozarks in the fall has experienced the beauty & grandeur of the vibrant foliage this season brings to life. Having grown up here, I am particularly partial to the bright reds, oranges and even occasional purples of the maples. This year I was especially overwhelmed by the beauty of these trees. Recently on a road trip, I happened to take off my sunglasses and was rather surprised with what I saw. Those radiant red & opulent orange leaves and the amber waves of grain, although still pretty, were not as breathtakingly beautiful anymore. I slipped my sunglasses back on and quickly realized those new glasses I’d purchased just a few weeks before had a red tint to the lenses. I had my first pair of rose-colored glasses and I had finally experienced the phenomenon I’d heard about all those years.
Normally, looking at life through “rose-colored glasses” seems to have a negative connotation. I had been taught it had a certain ignorance attached to it, whether innocent or not. But this time it was different for me. I now knew that the view I was looking through was enhanced. Instead of deciding I didn’t like the “true” color of those pretty landscapes or thinking of the new view as "fake", I chose to love the way those glasses brought out the best of what was there.
The same is true of us when we choose to look at life through the eyes of Christ. When I look at creation through the blood of Jesus, I am not denying what may currently be a less than perfect situation. Instead, I am accepting how powerful that precious Blood really is! I can see past the way people, things or situations have fallen short of the glory of God and through that Blood see the potential that God provided through redemption. I may not independently apply the Blood to those circumstances by looking through the rose-colored glasses of the redemption (that is up to those actually in the circumstance) but I can see no man but in Christ and call forth that life of Christ to manifest in them. Let the goodness of the Lord that I see be manifested through me and draw all to repentance (a big word for simply changing our mind and changing our ways to line up with what God says)!
Titus 1:15 tells us, “To the pure, all things are pure but to those that are defiled and unbelieving nothing is pure.“ If I choose not to believe that the Blood really did what the Bible says it did (& does), I will not be able to find one pure thing to think on (Phil 4:8). Don’t ignore what you see – but do look through the Blood of Christ and see as God sees!
