Line upon Line

A child, living and seeing in the moment, wants the candy now. A parent, with slightly wider vision, sees no appetite for dinner and another cavity in the teeth.

We children, during our turn on earth, see (and want) the material, physical world. Our Father and our Elder Brother see eternal purpose and the things we must gain to return to them.

Therefore, Christ says to us, “lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt” (Matthew 6:20). What an example was his life – free from the things that the world calls great, but filled with the light and life that lasts long after earth’s glories fade!

Christ saw all things in their true perspective, in the eternal frame of reference. Thus those who broke laws, who went wrong, who hurt Him, who crucified Him were not enemies to be fought but friends who needed help – brothers and sisters whom he had come to save.

It was as though Christ, even with His feet on the earth, preserved His vision from above so that he saw more than the moment and based His feelings and His actions on eternal rather than on mere earthly realities.

The enemies, in His frame of reference, were never the people He had come to save.  Instead, the enemies were always the evils that could hurt those people and that could block the salvation He sought for them. Hypocrisy, greed, sin – these were the destroyers, the things Christ came to subdue.

Try for a moment to glimpse things from His perspective – a perspective of being fully aware of the realities of the premortal life, the spirit world, the degrees of glory:

         evil  becomes a need for help
         enemies become brothers and sisters who misunderstand
         death becomes birth
         leadership becomes service
         God becomes Father
         children become respected brothers and sisters
         pain and opposition become eternal organizations
         weakness becomes humility and potential spiritual strength
         earthly riches become mind-diverting things with no value unless they are used to help and serve
         wisdom, understanding and intelligence become part of the eternal soul – things that  last
         faith, hope, and charity become passports back to the Father.

One reason that Christ’s life was so different from any man’s is that He saw the whole circle of eternal life – 360 degrees – while we so often see only the narrow slice of the moment. 

Next week we will look at the priority the Lord placed on families.