J.R. Briggs

The Kingdom of God is like polarized lenses

May 24, 2009

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Last year on vacation in Florida I was swimming in the ocean when a wave hit me and sent my sunglasses flying. They plopped into the Atlantic, never to be seen again. Not a huge deal regarding price (I bought them for about $8) but I loved those glasses (I bought those glasses when I was in college!) and now the hassle of find the ‘right’ replacement pair.

I found a pair (again, under $10) but I found out something about them after the fact that continues to amaze me: they have polarized lenses. I had heard about sunglasses with polarized lenses (fishermen told me they are great, but never heard or understood why) but didn’t know what that meant. Until I  started wearing them on vacation.

It’s true: sunglasses with polarized lenses rock.

Why?

Because you can see new things when you wear them that you can’t see with the naked eye. These sunglasses don’t just protect your eyes from the sun; it also brings new things into my vision. My vision is altered – for the better – to see things I had missed for so long.

The light shimmers differently and highlights new objects I normally never would have noticed.

When I walk on pavement I see the rainbow of colors of oil stains and spots reflecting back clearly.

When I drive I can see the ‘tint’ on windshields (and the thick layer of dust on my dashboard).

When we were near a body of water I could see fish very clearly below the surface that others were unable to see without my glasses (hence, the excitement of the fishermen in said conversations).

I wonder if Jesus were here today if he would tell a modern-day parable that started with: “The kingdom of God is like a man who wore a pair of sunglasses with polarized lenses…”

When we’re intimately connected to the ways of Jesus we see the world differently. We look for the kingdom of God at work, in big but most importantly in subtle ways, and we see it. We see kingdom activity, kingdom promise, kingdom initiative, kingdom opportunity. We begin to see things that were once hidden in plain sight but now are apparent, clear, present. We begin to see things below the surface.

We not only look; we actually begin to see – maybe for the first time. We see the kingdom life in our ordinary days. Sometimes we complain that God is showing up, throw our hands up in the air and say, “Well, if he would just show up in a burning bush!” I wonder if God wants to communicate back, “I am in burning bushes all over the place – they’re there! – you just aren’t seeing them!”

Maybe living in and living out the values of the kingdom means asking God to supply us with some spiritually polarized sunglasses by which to see the world.

John 5:17 says, “My Father is always at his work to this very day, and I too am working.”

Do I see it?

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