Today we took off on the 2194 from Fort Lauderdale to Milwaukee. Making our ascent, I couldn’t help but appreciate the change of perspective: how distant the world below us became with all its traffic and artificial lights, my job and responsibilities, my home and my desk with its to-do lists, the shopping malls and noise, everything that tried to get me down during the past month. All of it receded away until they were tiny specks below us, until we were above the clouds and couldn’t see anything except for white fluff and brilliant sunshine.

This change of perspective was welcome, as was the break from reality. Up there, everything kind of faded away and was replaced by the fact that we were on our way home to our tribe of faraway family and friends. Below the clouds, life rushed at me; above the clouds, I basked in the sunlight.

This is God’s perspective, isn’t it? He knows that the world below us is insignificant and tiny, and that the world above us is heaven itself, our eternity. Above the clouds, he’s fitting the pieces of our lives into place in His perfect timing, even if it doesn’t feel like it to us. In heaven, our Lord is above time, calling us in His Word to trust him with our eternity.

But he’s not a faraway God, all white-bearded and distant. He doesn’t watch up there unattached. His hands are active and far-reaching. He listens to our prayers. His home is also our hearts.

Which is why he parted the clouds one night long ago, and kept his Word. In his almighty perspective, he knew the timing was just right, so he moved aside heaven and made his Word real. He made his Word flesh.

“The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth” (John 1:14).

No. Our God is not a distant God. Our God came to our messy, muddy earth with its confusion and sin, its dirt and its clouds. He got down here right among the mess, starting in that feed box of a manger and then later among the crowds and noise. And since he is God, he walked among this dirty earth without giving into it, without letting sin touch his life. All for this reason:

You…

…and me and every other precious, but lost and confused heart. Jesus gathered us all up into himself, all our sins and missteps and terrible dark things, and carried them up to that cross. And died with you and me in his mind and on his heart.

That’s when the curtain came down and those clouds parted for good. No more is there a distance between God and me, no more do I fear his punishment, no more do I wallow in despair.

And in his resurrection, I will also stand victorious over death one day. I will share heaven with Jesus, I will get to leave this sorry earth. I won’t have to drag around this sin-infested body anymore. I will get peace like a river, I will bask in his light, I will see as I was meant to see: without the clouds of sin blocking my Sun.

All because he came. All because he saved me. All because he loved me.

In Christ alone, who took on flesh
Fullness of God in helpless babe
This gift of love and righteousness
Scorned by the ones He came to save
‘Til on that cross as Jesus died
The wrath of God was satisfied
For every sin on Him was laid
Here in the death of Christ I live

There in the ground His body lay
Light of the world by darkness slain
Then bursting forth in glorious Day
Up from the grave He rose again
And as He stands in victory
Sin’s curse has lost its grip on me
For I am His and He is mine
Bought with the precious blood of Christ

No guilt of life, no fear in death
This is the power of Christ in me
From life’s first cry to final breath
Jesus commands my destiny
No power of hell, no scheme of man
Can ever pluck me from His hand
‘til He returns or calls me home
Here in the power of Christ I’ll stand