Every night, without fail, turning out the lamp in my son’s bedroom cues his brain to fire up in-depth analysis on the most obscure topics he’s encountered thus far in his short five years of life.

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Do you know what a “water bear” is? I do.

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Ever wondered why whale poop is pink? His dad and I can tell you.

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Want to hear a play-by-play of the Wild Kratts Season 4 Episode 7 plot? I sure did not want to, but here we are.

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Just come to my house at 7pm any given night, and my son will be happy to enlighten you in vivid and excruciating detail.  

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And every night with his something-really-important, I honestly just want to squeeze his sweet, sincere little face and say, “Babe, it’s bedtime. That just not what’s important right now.”

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But he doesn’t have the same vision for the future I do, right? In his limited experience, the source of pink poo truly is wildly important. And I imagine the disciples felt the same as they pointed out some impressive aspects of the temple, as recorded in Matthew 24. Like, Jesus – did you see that stonework??

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Maybe you too have found yourself swept up in the things of this life – the things that seem big around you. I know I have – relational trials or work hurdles, projects I’m building or big family milestones…these things seem so important to us. But every once in a while, it’s helpful to allow the Lord to zoom us out a bit, lest we miss the forest of this life for a really cool tree.

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Jesus replies to the disciples, “Do you see all these things? Truly I tell you, not one stone here will be left on another; every one will be thrown down.” It seems safe to assume that, as a carpenter, Jesus appreciated architecture and craftsmanship. Maybe that’s why his disciples drew his attention to it in the first place. But Jesus seems to know in this moment that his disciples needed a reminder about what was most important at that time. Their limited perspective was putting blinders on their spiritual eyes, blinding them to the more important things God was doing. As Jesus rebuked Peter for on another occasion, “You do not have in mind the concerns of God, but merely human concerns” (Matt. 16:23).  

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Haven’t you found yourself there, too? So zeroed in on one small thing that you realize only too late you missed what God was doing? An opportunity for a spiritual conversation to go deeper, but you weren’t paying enough attention to step into it. The opportunity for discernment in a project that you just didn’t catch. An opportunity to join God in HIS work, but you missed it.

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And yet, we can praise God today because he is so gracious to invite us to join him again and again. Thank you, Lord!

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The disciples say this next: “When will this happen, and what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age?” Notice their over-correction: They missed it the first time and now they want to make sure they don’t miss it a second. So, they ask, “Jesus, how can we know what we’re looking for? How can we be sure?”

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It seems their motives are pure, because Jesus answers them quite frankly and expansively. As he paints a brief sketch in answer to their question, however, he gives three grounding reminders in the middle of the extremes: Don’t be alarmed (v. 6), stand firm in your faith (v. 13), and be ready (v. 44).

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See, Jesus is always righting our perspective. He’s not surprised when we ask the wrong questions, the ones that just aren’t important right now. But he will shift our gaze and adjust our focus to what matters most. He does it for the disciples in this moment, and he does it for us, too.

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Maybe the end times get you all spun up one way or another, and you need the perspective shift Jesus offers in this chapter. It’s a correction of two extremes: keeping one’s eyes only on the things of this world OR keeping one’s eyes too much on the minutia of what’s coming. Neither is the point. Rather, he says, stay steady in your heart, firm in your faith, and keep those eyes on me.

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But maybe you need this reminder in other areas of your life too – in the midst of a diagnosis, a cross-country move, or a battle of one kind or another. Don’t cling to the temporary things of this world, Jesus says, and don’t fixate on controlling what’s to come. In whatever it is, let his voice remind you today…

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Stay steady.

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Stand firm.

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Eyes on me.