Fixed Eyes

I wrote about my running partner, Kip, the other day. (You can read it here.) We've covered untold miles together. We've endured all kinds of weather. We've experienced the highs and lows that all good running buddies go through. But he's actually a terrible companion on the trails because he is a squirrel dog. 

SQUIRREL. DOG.
He cares about nothing else. From the minute I step out the door with running shoes on, He is looking for squirrels. He ignores any animal we see on a run unless it's a squirrel. And if he is sure a squirrel is up a tree, he'll stand at the base and bark at it for hours.

He's not a running dog. He's a squirrel dog. He's made to chase squirrels; running is what he has to do to get where they are.

But there is more: when he's seen a squirrel, nothing else enters his senses. He doesn't hear me calling, he doesn't see holes in the ground (I watched him trip and fall yesterday because he was looking 30 feet up in a tree instead of at his feet), and he doesn't sniff the ground for any other creature. He's totally fixated on the squirrel. With all he has.

And as I watched Kip obsess over a squirrel yesterday, oblivious to everything else around him, my mind went to a passage that I've been pondering in light of Easter:

"When the days drew near for him to be taken up, he set his face to go to Jerusalem," (Luke 9:51, ESV).

Other translations say it this way:

"Not long before it was time for Jesus to be taken up into heaven, he made up his mind to go to Jerusalem," (CEV).

"Now when the time was almost come for Jesus to be received up [to heaven], He steadfastly and determinedly set His face to go to Jerusalem," (AMP).

"And it came to pass, in the completing of the days of his being taken up, that he fixed his face to go on to Jerusalem," (YLT).

Jesus didn't just fix His eyes.
He fixed His face. 
His mind.
His entire focus was on heaven.

Like Kip, he knew what He was made to do. And He was completely, utterly focused on it.

Don't forget, though, what had to happen before heaven: 
Betrayal. 
Conviction.
Beating. 
Crucifixion. 
Death.

But Jesus did not focus on those things. He knew what lay beyond those: heaven. And he knew that He had to go through Jerusalem--and all it meant--in order to get there.

So He did it. Hebrews 12 says it like this: "For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God," (verse 2, NIV). 

And we're called to do the same:

"we...fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith," (Hebrews 12:2).

[That's all in the same verse, by the way.]

We know there's much earth between us and Jesus. But He is our focus. Our ultimate goal. And we know that though life here will be hard, we're headed to Him.

Kip fixes his eyes on the squirrel, confident that one day he may just get one.
Jesus fixed His face to go to Jerusalem, knowing Heaven was on the other side.
We fix our eyes on Jesus, knowing He is our reward.

Because Kip was made to be a squirrel dog. 
Because Jesus was made for heaven.
Because we are made for Jesus.


Leslie Hudson