Dugout Devotions | Seeing Differently
Renewed Minds
The song, Be Thou My Vision, is a prayer asking God to help us see the world in the same way God sees the world.
Ask: What do you see when you look out into the world? Encourage your children to think about all the things they see every day: flowers, trees, nature, animals, homes, buildings, friends, strangers, family, pets, teammates, etc.
Tell your kids that when they look out into the world and see people, they see God. They see God when they see other people because God has created every person in God’s image.
Ask: When you are getting ready for a game and looking at the stands, do all the people look the same?
Tell your kids that some people are not as tall. Some people have more hair than other people. Some people are wearing different clothing. Some people wear glasses. Some people have different shoes on. Dresses, pants, cleats, and clothes can all be different. Sometimes, we all live in different types of homes.
We would see all of these different people, whether they're here in church or on the baseball field or in nature or in our homes and buildings or in our neighborhoods or in our school classes, the same way God sees them.
Before we see our differences, all the things that are different about us, the different hair, the different skin color, the different heights, the different sizes, whether or not we can turn a double play or throw a runner out at second or walk successfully in high heels, which I could never do.
Before any of those things God wants us, our prayer today is that we would see the world and see one another as God sees us, as one, as all of us being made in God's image. That means when you look at other people, I look at all of you, and we look at all the grownups in the stands, and when we look at our teammates or the other team, we get to see a glimpse of who God is.
When we are all together and view the world as God wants us to view it, we are one church.
And today, we can pray that today, tomorrow, and the next day, when we look at someone else before we see them as different from us, we first see them as someone who was made by God.
Invite your children to pray with you, repeating after you (or you can invite your children to pray for your family).
Deat God, Thank you for all of the different people. Thank you for the tall people and the not-so-tall people. Thank you for people who look like me and for people who do not look like me. But most importantly, God, thank you for making each of us in your image. Help me see other people as you see them. And help me love them like you love them. We'll talk to you later. Amen.