Tis the season

shadow of potential

I was on a walk and the sun was setting behind me. It was so funny because the shadow in front of me looked about 9 ft tall. I started kind of laughing because myself as a 9 ft tall person is kind of funny and awkward looking. Then I started thinking... this is probably how the Lord sees us. He sees our potential as being so far greater than we see ourselves. I look at myself walking and all I can see as my feet but when I look at my shadow I see this 9 ft giant ahead of me that doesn't look what I think I should look like at all. He doesn't see limitation in me. He doesn't see where He has fallen or fallen short. He sees His Son. He sees greatness and far more abundantly than I could ever imagine or deserve. He sees the things coated with grace that He is going to do through me and the things He wants to develop in me. Then the thought arose in me, what if I saw people I met like that or the people I live life with? What if I saw the potential in them and what the Lord wanted to do in and through them rather than just what and where they were right then. I think this is a lot of how the Lord wants us to love people. To see where they are headed and what they are capable of and speak into that! To love them forward kind of. To encourage them to reach their potential. It would be an incredible picture of the Gospel if we saw the shadow of potential in everyone, the shadow of Christ - Christ in us, the hope of glory. I bet we'd love people a lot better.

"Now to Him who is able to do FAR MORE ABUNDANTLY than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, to him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen." Ephesians 3:20-21