Most of us have seen this optical illusion before. Do you see a beautiful young woman or an elderly woman? Like all optical illusions, it is about perspective. How do you see it? Why does someone else see it differently? Because we look at things in different ways and we look sometimes expecting things to be a certain way. With this picture, it is hard for some to see anything but what they first perceive and for some it is hard to switch back once your mind has made the adjustment to the other image.
Many times we look at ourselves and see only the faults, the shortcomings, the impossibilities. We look at where we have failed and think God cannot possibly use us now. Truthfully, many times others will look at us in the same way. While it is important to acknowledge our sins and confess them and agree with God on their seriousness, it is also essential that we realize that Christ died for all sin and nothing is too big for Him to forgive and nothing is so permanent that God cannot use us on the other side of confession. This truth applies to salvation, but it also applies to restoration.
"It's never too late to be who
you might have been."
Mark Batterson, in his book Soulprint: Discovering Your Divine Destiny, reminds us that "it's never too late to be who you might have been." Later in the book, he also says, "Jesus didn't die just to get us off the hook. He also died to resurrect the person we were destined to be before sin distorted the image of God in us."
