The World We Know

Have you ever wondered what God sees when He looks down at the world?  Speaking for myself, I don't often look at things from God's perspective, but today on my way home from work today I heard a song that really got me to thinking.

I was listening to The World I Know by Collective Soul, and I was reminded of the third temptation of Jesus.  You know the one, where Satan takes Him up to a very high point so He can see the whole world.  As the chorus came over my speakers, I wondered if maybe this is what went through Jesus' mind as He looked down over the world He had created, but who had turned its back on Him.

So I walk up on high 

And I step to the edge 

To see my world below. 

And I laugh at myself 

As the tears roll down. 

'Cause it's the world I know. 

It's the world I know.

I can imagine Jesus looking down and giving a sad laugh, remembering some of the good times with Abraham, David, and the disciples.  But with tears streaking His face because, even though those times may have been good, they were so far from the Good that He intended for us to have before....you know.  The weight of that one bad decision and all its consequences, not just for what Jesus knew He would be going through, but for what He knows every one of us goes through each day.  How His heart must have just broken!

But even out of that great sorrow, such love for us comes out!  "For God so loved the world that He gave..." (John 3:16)!  This is real love—not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to take away our sins (I John 4:10).

Think about it, Jesus came down to our broken, rebellious world, a world that He created with such wonderful things in mind for us.  While we were still screwed up, broken, and fallen far, far short of the standard God created for us, He came.  Because of our actions, our personal choices, we were supposed to die, forever separated from the God we told we didn't want around any more.  Yet God, with undeserved kindness, declares that we are righteous. He did this through Christ Jesus when He freed us from the penalty for our sins. For God presented Jesus as the sacrifice for sin. People are made right with God when they believe that Jesus sacrificed His life, shedding His blood. This sacrifice shows that God was being fair when He held back and did not punish those who sinned in times past, for He was looking ahead and including them in what He would do in this present time. God did this to demonstrate his righteousness, for He Himself is fair and just, and He declares sinners to be right in His sight when they believe in Jesus (Rom. 3:24-25).

When we look out there, at our lives, our world, what do we see?  Do we get angry because of the injustice?  Do we speak hateful things against our friends because we disagree with their political views?  Do we write people off because we figure they don't like us anyway?  Do we let ourselves become overwhelmed by the sheer volume of negativity and evil in the world?

Or, like Jesus, do we see hope?  Do we see love?  God showed how much He loved us by sending His one and only Son into the world so that we might have eternal life through Him. This is real love—not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son as a sacrifice to take away our sins (I John 4:9-11).

So if God loves us that much, surely we ought to love each other, right?