My Landscape

 

 

I believe that a man’s landscape is the sum of the many tracts of land that intersect his life. The social, emotional and physical features of our territory are deep and varied. Parts of our terrain may have scars cause by many years of drought and neglect. Perhaps, failure to plant and cultivate wisely has left our soil fallow and dry. It is a hard place to see ourselves correctly.

A landscape by definition is an expanse of scenery that can be seen in a single view. However, a single view is incomplete and inadequate when it comes to a man’s landscape, that’s why we need the Father’s view. Seeing our landscape like the Father empowers and recalibrates our surveying skills. The horizon, once lost in the haze of pain and loss, is brought to focus and we see who we really are. We are valuable real estate, bought at a great price. This is the way the Father views the landscape of our lives.

“But God, who is rich in mercy, for His great love with which He loved us (even when we were dead in sins) has made us alive together with Christ (by grace you are saved)” Ephesians 2:4-5

He makes us alive! Think about that for a moment. Maybe this Father focus moment is about discovering for the first time, just how much He loves you. He wants you alive so that your life makes a difference is this world. Father God wants to rock your world with the fact that you matter to Him! Not only that, you matter to the world, your life is a powerful statement of who God is. As God restores the human heart we can move in our world as He desires. Our works, the way we live help bring the change and bring glory to the Father

When every part of your life is soaked with that knowledge, you cannot stay the same. I know the power of this love transfusion; it changed my orphan status forever. My passion for loving my wife, for fathering, and all that I am, is powered by the fact that I am God’s son. That zeal is also fuel by personal experience and the memories of an abusive father, I know the pain of being abandoned by my father, even though he was still at home. That abuse should have left me scarred and stunted and my landscape barren. Except for this truth I discovered years ago…I really wasn’t abandoned.

“For my father and my mother have forsaken me, but the LORD will take me up.” Psalm 27:10

“You have seen it; for You behold mischief and vexation, to repay it with Your hand. The poor commits himself to You; You are the Helper of the fatherless.” Psalm 10:14

“In His holy dwelling God is the father of the fatherless, and the judge of the widows.” Psalm 68:5

When God becomes your Father, it changes everything. It changes your “upbringing”; your landscape! I can give testimony to that fact. I have a wonderful marriage and seven terrific kids, my life is blessed. There was pain and hardship but God was with me through it all. What the enemy meant for evil, God worked it out for good.

How’s your “landscape” today? How can I pray for you?

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