By Danielle Wynn, Director of Youth & Children’s Ministry, Jubilee Church Wirral

The way we see things, the way we understand things, the way we hear things…

Perceptions.

As we walked through London this week we caught sight of the London Eye. The huge circular wheel with gumdrops hanging from perfect intervals amazed us from afar. What a view you must get from up there. It appeared to stand still against the London sky.

The next day we ventured closer – and wow. It was so much bigger than it had appeared from across the river! Standing right under it, we were in awe of the engineering feat that it is. And… it was actually moving! Slowly taking the passengers up, up and up… higher and higher to view the marvels of the big city.

Perceptions.

We got it wrong. We got the size wrong and our understanding wrong. Until we were right next to it we couldn’t really appreciate what it was like. We didn’t even realise it was moving the day before as well!

How often we see things differently to the way God sees them.

We can look at things from a worldly point of view – sometimes we don’t even realise we are doing it.

We can sometimes flip-flop from a worldly point of view to seeing things from a Godly point of view.

We can be over-critical or under-critical. We can be coming from a place of anger, or a place of love. We can be looking at life with an optimistic view, or a pessimistic view. We can be approaching life and situations from a Godly perspective or an un-Godly perspective. The world wants us to fall into the trap of perceiving things from the perspective of whatever is popular at the moment. These different perspectives can often get a bit more personal and flow into what we think about ourselves. Often we search and search for something to tell us who we are and why we are here.

God says something different.

In 1 John 3:1, He says that we are children of God.

In Ephesians 2:4-5, He says that we are loved and alive through Him.

In Psalm 139:13-16, He says that we are made exactly as He wanted and He has plans for us.

In 1 Thessalonians 1:4, He says that we are chosen and loved.

In Colossians 2:10, He says that we are complete in Christ.

• How do you perceive yourself today?
• How do you think of others today?
• Are you perceiving things through what God says?