Heaven's Perspective

I have come home at last!
This is my real country! I belong here.
This is the land I have been looking for all my life,
though I never knew it till now...
Come further up, come further in!

C. S. Lewis, The Last Battle

The View from Above

Have you noticed when flying that everything looks better from the air? It's akin to how lovely the world looks from a mountain's peak. Yet, rising in a plane on take-off delivers the enhanced perspective so swiftly that it's positively astounding. You can see the very streets you were just speeding along as you tried to get to the the airport on time. Those streets were filled with the chaos of random traffic, laced with dangerous potholes, and unpleasantly littered with trash. That's what caught your attention then. Now, rising higher with the wind against the wings, the picture that emerges is one of an engineering marvel, studded with impressive strength, flowing with graceful lines and revealing patterns of an underlying and rational order. The "mean streets" are suddenly beautiful!

I'm not going to promise you that I can help you see grief that way. At least you won't in the beginning. You're still trying to figure out how to buckle your seat belt! The jet's turbines your engines of grief are rattling and roaring with deafening intensity. The stewardess your inner critic is fussing and fuming about you not getting with the program. You've already felt the sickening thud of the plane's wheel's leaving the runway and locking into place down below. There's no going back to the way things were. And you know it.

Yet, here you are dazed and numb, still trying to figure out how you got into this revolting predicament in the first place. It's time to look up and see where your help is going to come from. Those blue heavens are still above you and the grief, if you will let it, will carry you higher and closer to the One with the best view of all. Soon, you might even summon the courage to look out the window and look back without tossing your lunch. There's a much better perspective to be gained.

List of Articles

God Grieves  Almost everything on our side of the spiritual life depends upon vision. In a very real sense, what we see is what we get. That's why Jesus kept entreating those with eyes to see (Matthew 13:16). Revelation is God opening our eyes to see as He sees and that far truer perspective is always liberating. Seeing that God grieves changes everything.

Grief Is Not an Illness  We may not say it outright, but by our looks and sometimes obsequious ways, we can easily give the impression that the grieving person has been struck with a life-threatening illness. That the severity of a great grief may feel life-threatening cannot be doubted, but grief is not a a sickness. Not at all. It is a wellness of the highest order!

Grief Is Not the Enemy  What comes flying out of our mouth, especially in unguarded moments, reveals the hidden thought of our heart. Listen carefully to how people talk about grief and tears. Neither are our enemy, yet we complain as if they are. This undercurrent is one of those little foxes which can ruin the whole vine if left unchecked (Song of Solomon 2:15).

Tears Are Our Friends  We have come a long way from the John Wayne days when real men never cried. Perhaps, we noticed that in the Bible God loves to draw water from a rock. Yes, even our stony hearts are softened by tears. Jesus wept for Lazarus; Samuel wept for Saul; King David covered his couch with tears. Why then, do we still bottle them up ourselves?

The Cross of Grief  No one in the ancient world wanted to be put on the Roman's dreaded cross. Yet, our God through the loss He allowed, places a cross upon us. When a great grief crosses our path there is simply no getting around it. The only thing that will ever work is to learn how to deny our self-willed ways, take up that cross faithfully, and follow Jesus through to the other side.

What Is Good Grief?  Since there is a right way and a wrong way for everything in life, there is a such a thing as good grief. That grief is good is God's doing; otherwise it would kill something in us as sin always does. Good grief, however, is grieving well, grieving the right way. The essence of it is fighting to respond to loss and pain in a way that honors God and our loved one.

Mending Grief  If grief is not an illness, then why speak of mending it? The difference between illness and accident (think broken bone) is that one is a disease and the other a disruption. Grief flows from a broken heart, not a diseased heart, though the full mending will require all contaminants to be cleansed from infecting the wound, just as with any illness.

Scripture

I lift up my eyes to the hills. From where does my help come? My help comes from the LORD, who made heaven and earth. Psalm 121:1-2

For this people's heart has grown dull, and with their ears they can barely hear, and their eyes they have closed, lest they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears and understand with their heart and turn, and I would heal them. But blessed are your eyes, for they see, and your ears, for they hear. Matthew 13:15-16

Catch the foxes for us, the little foxes that spoil the vineyards, for our vineyards are in blossom. Song of Solomon 2:15

All scripture citations are from the English Standard Version (ESV) unless otherwise noted.