Every time I look through the lens of a microscope, I am struck by the realisation that beyond what the naked eye can see lies a universe far deeper and richer.
I am reminded that God’s gaze, like an infinite microscope, is able to penetrate every layer of reality, examining at once the finest details of the world and of the human mind.
Electron microscopes magnify images up to ten million times, revealing atoms and their delicate bonds. At the other end of reality, the most advanced telescopes carry our sight toward billions of galaxies, each containing billions of stars, located billions of light-years away. Between the microcosm and the macrocosm, the complexity of reality becomes staggering, with every order of magnitude opening a window onto a new world, complete with its own structures, phenomena, and forms of beauty. God, however, holds the entire reality of the universe at once, down to the level of our hidden thoughts, intentions, and motivations (Hebrews 4:13). At every moment, His infinite wisdom manages this complexity effortlessly and without error.
When we turn our gaze toward ourselves, the contrast is striking. Limited and incomplete, we tend to reduce Jesus to the scale of our own desires or ideals. Without realising it, we shape Him to fit our personal agendas, selectively emphasising the traits that confirm our convictions—gentleness or severity, justice or grace—precisely the same traits that others might downplay because they challenge their beliefs or disrupt their comfort. As a result, His image becomes fragmented and unbalanced, while the true beauty of Jesus lies exactly in the profound harmony of all His moral attributes.
If this harmony so often seems to slip through our fingers, it is because even our best intentions inevitably bear the mark of subtle self-interest, pride, or ignorance. Scripture makes the striking claim that even our finest deeds resemble a “filthy rags” (Isaiah 64:6). At a deep, almost microscopic level, human motivations are far more complex than we can grasp and are always touched by imperfection.
This is why we have an urgent need to remain in constant communion with Christ (John 15:4–5), allowing Him to dwell within us through the Holy Spirit. Only His continual presence can balance our flaws and fill the gaps in our being (2 Corinthians 12:9). Only in this way can we draw closer to the divine model of relationship that seeks no personal gain but expresses genuine love and selfless service. His face—infinitely richer than any human template—transforms our lives gradually, yet steadily (2 Corinthians 3:18). He remains the only lens through which the world truly comes into focus.
This broad and profound perspective was fully evident in the way Jesus related to people. He saw each person completely, regardless of social status, cultural prejudice, or differences in temperament. He paused for everyone and always found a bridge to authentic communication. We, by contrast, often retreat into narrow circles, unable to cope with the human diversity around us. And it is this very limitation that becomes both the cause and the consequence of our inability to understand and to love as He did. Even when we believe our intentions are the best, we inevitably fail others “in many ways” (James 3:2). The complexity of the world around us and the depth of our inner universe far exceed our capacity to fully grasp them.
Only when Christ truly lives within us, through the Holy Spirit, do we gain the unique privilege of seeing the world through His eyes. Then the outer and inner worlds merge into a reality in which we can once again perceive the beauty of people and the coherence of the way God guides the world. Only then, by looking through His gaze, do we stop deepening the wounds of the world and become, in a genuine sense, instruments of its healing.
