I was with some of my best friends this afternoon with their gorgeous baby son. And when his Mummy and Daddy are around, he really only has eyes for them. He’s only seven weeks old, but you can see him searching for them when they are both out of sight. He knows that everything he needs comes from them; food, warmth, nappy changes and love (although the family and friends also give lots of love and cuddles).
Now, apart from waxing lyrical about how cute he is (have I mentioned that, yet?!) I do have a point in writing this.
You see, it struck me that his eyes are fixed on the ones who love him and provide all he needs.
As we get older, our horizons widen (and this is right and proper) but there is something about the singularity of a baby’s focus which made me wonder what my life would be like if I fixed my eyes on my Father in Heaven like a baby fixes their eyes on a parent.
If I sought everything I need from my Maker, fixed my eyes on Him and Him alone, I think life would look a little different. It isn’t that I wouldn’t still love and need those around me – God made us for meaningful relationship with our fellow man – but our ultimate needs, our need for security and value come from the One who knows us best. As the writer of Hebrews says in 12:1b-2 “let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, 2 fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith.”
I’m pretty sure that if we did this, it isn’t that everything else would become dim and dull, but that these things would come to life and be put in perspective. Safe in our identity and the knowledge that we are loved, we can dare to reach out.
Reach out to those on the edge.
Reach out to those in the dark.
Because it seems to me that the more we fix our eyes on Jesus – the wider our horizons become.
Rachael Newham 
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