A MESSAGE FROM REV. DR. STEPHEN SIMMONS: SEEING IN DEPTH
If you are of a certain age, you may remember a great little toy called the Viewmaster, which played weird binocular tricks with your eyes. Pop in a slide, and you were suddenly seeing the Grand Canyon or Niagara Falls in 3-D. We thought it was wonderful. Your eyes registered two images, melded them into one, and presto! You were now seeing in depth. It was a miracle!
Seeing the world in depth is still a miracle. As followers 
of Jesus, we are binocular people called to look at this complicated and broken world through both the cold eye of realism and the bright eye of faith, and it can be a real stretch (even a real headache!) to keep both perspectives in view. But it’s at the exact moment when we want to throw up our hands that God says, “Roll up your sleeves,” and reminds us that this world is the worksite of the new creation.
This week we commemorate the life of our 39th President, Jimmy Carter, who died last Sunday at the age of 100, who never stopped rolling up his sleeves, both literally and figuratively, and who never ceased to see the world in 3-D. Commentators have pointed out that, despite the crushing challenges (and often scorn) he faced as President, most pictures from the time show him with a smile on his face. He seemed to be seeing something that other people just weren’t seeing.
He himself was clear about what that was, being completely unabashed about his faith in God. As he put it, “My faith demands – this is not optional – my faith demands that I do whatever I can, wherever I can, whenever I can, for as long as I can, with whatever I have to try to make a difference.“ And make a difference he did, bringing longtime adversaries to the peace table, leading the charge against devastating diseases in the Global South, putting up sheet rock for Habitat for Humanity. He made our world a bit brighter, and it is a little darker without him.
But he wasn’t alone. As we enter this new year, countless people continue to work steadfastly, often in dangerous and desperate circumstances, to heal the world. They do it because they can see beyond present reality to future possibility, and they invite us to join them.
I’ll close with some words of encouragement from one of these quiet heroes, Archbishop Elias Chacour, founder of the Mar Elias Educational Institutions, which provide a first-rate elementary and secondary education to thousands of young people representing all ethnic and religious backgrounds in the Galilee, following their motto, “building peace on desktops.” In his New Year greeting to worldwide colleagues,
Father Chacour says,
“You may feel powerless to bring change to our part of the world, but you are not. Start with the people around you, dream, then work to make your dreams come true
Yours for Better Vision,
Steve Simmons