My wife, Gwen, has a mirror I refuse to use. It is a magnifier. I see my flaws magnified a gazillion times. It seems to me that many of us see ourselves that way. We look at ourselves and too easily focus on what is wrong with us. That can be demoralizing.

As we grow older (and we all do) we recognize that we can’t do some of the things we used to do. In my case it’s a balance issue. Gwen watches me when I push the trash container down our driveway half expecting to come and pick me up in the front yard.

Ruth Rothfarb used to run in seniors’ races and explained why she was slower one year than she was before. She explained, “You lose a lot of speed between 80 and 86.”

The writer of Hebrews gives an encouraging word for all of us who are prone to look at our weaknesses. He begins with a reference to Psalm 8 that describes what God planned for us and how far short of that we have fallen. Then he gives a prescription that should inspire hope in all of us.

“What is mankind that you are mindful of them, a son of man that you care for him?

You made them a little lower than the angels; you crowned them with glory and honor and put everything under their feet. 

In putting everything under them, God left nothing that is not subject to them. 

Yet at present we do not see everything subject to them. 

But we do see Jesus, who was made lower than the angels for a little while, now crowned with glory and honor because he suffered death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone” (Hebrews 2:6-9).

This is an important shift of focus from what we used to be, with all our present weakness and failure, to the grace we receive because of who Jesus is and what He has done for us.

A part of this Scripture that continues to give me hope is the expression, “But we do see Jesus.”

It is a place of great victory when we learn to look away from our failure and see Jesus crowned with glory and honor. Our greatest act of faith is to focus on Him. He came to make us what we were meant to be.

We too easily tend to look at everything but Jesus. I spent a good portion of my life looking at what I did not have. I compared myself unfavorably with others. I had a list of reasons that would keep me from success.

My only hope, and yours, is to see Jesus.

When we see Him we see the grace that He brought that reaches us in our lowest places and raises us so that we sit with Him in heavenly places.

A priest was dying in Oakland, California. The man in the neighboring bed overheard the conversation between him and the older priest who came to minister to him. The younger priest said, “Father, it is very strange: I have done everything I know. I have sought to carry out all that the church has asked, and yet I have no peace. How can I be sure that God has put away my sins?”

The older priest said, “Surely the blood of Christ ought to count for something.”

“Oh, yes,” said the dying priest, “it counts for everything. I can trust that.”

Keep looking at Jesus and what He’s done for us. Jesus’ blood counts for everything.

We can trust who He is and what He has done for us. By the grace of God He has overcome sin, death and our failure. He restores us to what God intended us to be when He created us.