If you’ve seen the recent Tom Hanks movie Saving Mr. Banks, you know that the classic movie Mary Poppins wasn’t about a Nanny coming to save the children. It was about a Nanny come to save Mr. Banks. And why would he need saving? According to Mary Poppins, he couldn’t see past the “end of his nose.” He lived for the next dollar while emotionally neglecting his kids until he eventually lost his job and found his joy flying a kite with Jane and Michael.
We do that, don’t we? We get so caught up in taking care of immediate business that we forget the bigger picture and neglect the task of investing in the next generation. But our vision can be even bigger than that. We can think all the way to eternity. Paul said it this way:
Since you have been raised to new life with Christ, set your sights on the realities of heaven, where Christ sits in the place of honor at God’s right hand.
– Colossians 3:1
Notice Paul’s reassuring use of tense: SINCE you HAVE BEEN raised… It’s an irrevocable act on God’s part. When you place your faith in Jesus Christ, you are raised, once and for all, to new life in Him. And if that’s happened to you, it is now possible to think past the next dollar, past the next generation, and on into eternity. You can set your sights and your affections on things beyond this world – the blessings to come in heaven.
It’s been said that some Christians are “too heavenly minded for any earthly good.” Maybe so. But one of the most important aspects of Christian faith is our steadfast hope that everything God promises about the future will indeed come to pass, and that those promises alter the course of our lives today as we focus our attention on the realities of eternity.
Just how big is your vision?
