Our eyes are positioned in front for a good reason: It allows us to focus.  Having two eyes on the same side of the head is the reason we have depth perception and can examine things in detail.  My friend, Derrick, and I were discussing this over coffee.  We were talking about eschatology and the book of Revelation.  People often develop strong convictions about “the last days” (or, for some, the lack thereof).  Yet whatever eschatological view one embraces, there remains a good deal of mystery about the whole subject.  (The most fearsome beast in Revelation is interpretation!)  The irony is that people tend to be most dogmatic about that which they understand least.  Eschatology is often a point of division instead of celebration.  Here’s what Derrick said about Revelation: “God wins.”  Derrick said he doesn’t want to miss the forest for the trees.  I couldn’t agree more.

As the conversation progressed, I observed that there are parallels between creation theology and eschatology.  People can have strong feelings about the length of creation, how old the earth is, theistic evolution, creationism, etc.  Again, there is more schism than glorification here.  Creation is something we understand by faith (Heb. 11:3).  God cut Job down to size by asking if he was present when God established the earth, commanded light to shine, or arranged the constellations (Job 38:4, 12, 32).  Were you there when creation happened?  Neither was I.  Let’s be humbled before God’s wisdom instead of brandishing uninformed opinions (Job 38:1).

This brings us back to our eyes being in front, believe it or not.  Theologically, there is a field of view with a center and periphery.  Creation and eschatology lie at either periphery.  God has made our vision broad enough to know these things are there.  But He hasn’t placed them in the center of view.  There is always value to looking left and right so we can get a better look at peripheral things.  But what is our focus?  What has God placed in our visual center?

Jesus Christ.

He is the message we preach (Col. 1:27-28).  God’s testimony is about Him (1 John 5:9).  Every last scripture speaks of Him (Luke 24:26-27, 45-46).  God has placed Jesus before us so we can examine Him with depth and detail.  As we look on Him, we find the periphery drawn ever more into the center until Christ encompasses the whole field of view.  He is the alpha and omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end, the all in all (Rev. 1:17, 21:6; Col. 3:11).  The nature of all things is first Personal, not chronological.  There are things, events, times, seasons, and places.  But the full reality of these is the God of Spirit who is, was, and is coming (Rev. 1:8).