I See You

There is a line in Avatar that gripped me when I heard it and has stayed with me since.

"I see you".

Selah.  Pause and think about that for a moment in terms of us and God.  Imagine him looking at you.  Speaking your name.  LOOKING at you.  When he sees you, he sees you.  Think about it like this:

I ... SEE you ...

I ... see you ...

I see ... YOU!

I bet you on the last one, if you paused to think, you also squirmed and immediately thought of all your short comings and failures.  When God looks at you and I, he SEES us.  All of us.  That is all that he created us to be.  The "what is now", and the "what is to come".  That which we are, and that which we are yet to attain.  He does not look at us and see what we have achieved and haven't achieved.  He does look at us and identify us by our "doings".  He looks at us and sees our "being" - that which he created us to be - in all it's fulness.


Currently we are reading John for bible study and as i was reading through Chapter 1, this concept gripped me.  It's an overarching theme all through Chapter 1.  In brief, lets see it in action ...


Start with Jesus ... John Ch 1:1-5 (very old Carman song runs in my head each time I say John 1 ... bad 80s thing ... you had to be there ... ).  So we SEE Jesus.  Who is he?

• the Word
• with God
• was in the beginning
• God
• Creator
• Life
• Light
• Overcomer

We are introduced to John the Baptist.  He SEES Jesus. 

• witness to the light (and was so from in the womb when he recognised Jesus)
• the revealer ... in vs 11 he saw Jesus ..."this is he ..."
• sees Jesus as the lamb of God
• sees God see Jesus ...  picture that as the voice from heaven speaks ... "this is my son in whom I am pleased ..."  God is speaking to Jesus.  Hello ... I SEE you ...

In vs 40 we see Andrew running off to Peter saying he has found the Messiah.  In other words, Andrew met Jesus and SAW him.

In vs 42, Jesus meets Simon and sees him.  All of him ... in the rough!  He looks at Simon and gives him a new name - Peter.  Names in Jewish culture were very important.  Your name said who you were.  Simon Bar Jona means "He who hears with a heart to obey as a son

of the Spirit".  Simon means "to hear".  The place they believe Jesus taught this message is in a location of huge Bedrock which has a lot of little rocks around.  It is a place where the locals used to worship the god 'Pan' (god of the shepherds) & the god Baal (god of fertility).  Simon had to have spiritual hearing to have caught what Christ was saying.  Are you hearing it?

Christ (the Rock) is the huge bedrock and Cephas or Peter (rock) is the portion of rock which comes from the bedrock. Jesus sees Peter ... the rock.  Was he that yet?  No ... but as Jesus looked at him, he saw all of him - that he was then and that which he would become - the rock hewn out of the bedrock.  "Hello Peter. I see YOU".

In vs 47, Jesus meets Nathanael.  His response to Nathanael is, "Ah.  Here is an Israelite in whom there is nothing false."  Nathanael is transparent to Jesus.  "Hello Nathanel. I SEE you."

It's not just John 1 either.  It's all through the Bible.  Abraham and God talk.  Abraham sees his barrenness.  God sees him - the father of many.  God meets Gideon.  "Hello mighty warrior".  Gideon is looking around saying, "er not me.  Nope.  I am from a weak family ... and I am the least of them".  But God is saying, "I see you".  Keep reading ... its everywhere!

So where does that leave us this morning?  God sees us.  He sees you.  He sees me.  He SEES us.  In full 3-d living color.  All of us ... width, breadth and depth.  He sees that which we are and that which we have not yet attained.  It is no different to him.  It is us.  The us he created us to be.  We however, look in the mirror and see a hazy, blemished, cracked image.  The we that we are not.  Listen to that!  The image is false.  The cracks and blemishes are in the mirror not us.  People, we need to change the mirror.  We need to hold him before us and look at reflection in the mirror of Christ.  I think you will find it a vastly different image to the one you are looking at right now.  

Some of you are squirming.  It's uncomfortable to be looking at a clear reflection when we don't like ourselves isn't it.  Look at yourself.  Stand and look.  God says of you and I,  "we are fearfully and wonderfully made - in his image no less".  (Ps 139).  Can you stand and look at yourself , see yourself as God does ... one of his art-pieces and then declare, "your work is wonderful?".  You may have some difficulty.  2 years ago, I felt God speak to me and tell me that I had been looking in a cracked mirror for too long and my self perception was skewed.  I felt led to ask some Godly friends who I trust, to act as mirrors for me.  I asked them to take time with God to pray for me and see me, then to write down who they saw me to be ... good and bad!  They had to describe me. My friends looked at me with godly eyes, and said, "I see you".  I sat and journalled before reading these, and asked God to tell me how he saw me.  I wrote down what i felt he said, whether I agreed or not and then sat back to look at it in the context of all the mirrors I had.   I  looked for the common threads.  It wasn't comfortable, but it was a very healing thing to do.  

Today, as you contemplate yourself and God, know he looks at you and sees you.  Allow that to transform your heart.  Allow yourself to see as He sees.  Allow yourself to BE.