Look Beyond This Point
The other day while eating at a restaurant, I happened to notice a sign on the door leading into the kitchen that read: LOOK BEYOND THIS POINT. Beneath this sign was a window where you could see the kitchen with its grills, refrigerators and serving counters. But more importantly, a waitress carrying a tray full of food coming out of the kitchen, could be seen by another waitress carrying a tray full of dirty dishes going into the kitchen. The sign would hopefully avert a possible collision by those using the door at the same time going in opposite directions, if they would read and heed the sign and look beyond this point.
Sitting there waiting to be served and thinking of that sign, the words of Paul came to me. To his troubled flock in Corinth he said, “Because we look not to the things that are seen but to the things which are unseen, for the things seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.”
Paul is saying that we are to look beyond this point. Too often we become so preoccupied with things seen, such as every day troubles, that we see only them, and then all seems hopeless and we crash! We are smacked in the face by our circumstances and we cannot see beyond.
CONSIDER our lives today and how we too, must attempt to look into that window, darkened as it may be, and see the greater things, the things unseen, which God is doing; not only in the world, but in our individual lives. That window allows us to look beyond this point, to look beyond our “small and temporary problems” and see the “greater glory” which God is bringing into this world, into our lives.
“Do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others.” (Philippians 2:4)
Rev. Wendell Mettey
6/10/1980
Revised 8/28/2013