Seeing the world

By Rob Hurtgen

My sons are color-blind. They see everything around them differently than I do. According to the British website Colour Blind Awareness, one in 12 men and one in 200 women across the world are color blind. While color blindness impacts a relatively small number of people it has a significant impact on my family. Asking my boys to pick out a pink or purple balloon from a rainbow of colors is an exercise in frustration. Teaching my son to drive, telling him to stop at red lights and go on green has been translated to, "The top light is red, when it is brighter than the other lights, you need to stop. The bottom light is green; when it is brighter than the other lights, you can go." There is nothing wrong with my boys. They see the world differently. Each of us sees the world differently too.

Every single one of us has a unique way of looking at the world: a view that is influenced by our natural demeanor, the family we come from, the latitude in which we live, the choices we make, and by the choices, others make for us. The Bible is a record of worldviews in the conflict between how we apart from God look at the world and how God desires us to view him, the world, and ultimately ourselves. Isaiah 44:16 highlights two principles to frame the way you look at the world.

Isaiah, and elsewhere the Bible, proposes that God is the creator and he formed and framed our universe with us in mind. Because God has a purpose in his creation, each our lives has meaning and significance as well. Your value then is not based on where you are from or what you achieve but that you are a part of God's creation.

Isaiah 44:6 also stresses that God did not create the earth empty but formed it to be inhabited. In other words, to live in, to be cared for, developed, and enjoyed. Our world is both a great gift and responsibility.

How you see the world matters. While none of us will see everything in the world the same how you look at the world drives how you live. The way you look at the world drives the decisions that you make to live every day.