Why Can't I See It!
March 27, 2020
Here’s a thought for the day …
Do you remember back in the early 90’s when those 3-D pictures became so popular? They were pictures that looked like complete chaos at first glance. They made no sense. Just a collection of colors and patterns thrown together in an apparently random pattern. But something interesting happened as you started to stare at them closely. As you lost track of the details at the surface level and looked beyond them, an image started to appear in the background. In fact, it was a 3-D image that was somehow imbedded in the picture. They were really cool … IF you could see the image! I hated them!
I don’t know why I struggled to see them. I would try and try to see what the artist wanted me to see and I just never could. People would say things like, “you have to stare into the middle of the chaos, let your focus become blurred and let your eyes go crossed!” WHAT DOES THAT EVEN MEAN! I was so frustrating to hear people describe the beauty of what they were seeing as I stood there with nothing. “I see the pirate ship with the ocean rolling and the sun setting in the background. It’s beautiful!” You know what I saw … a bunch of colors and patterns thrown together in kaleidoscopic chaos. “You’re not trying hard enough!” they would say. I better leave it there; I’m getting anxious just writing about it.
Let’s face it, vision is something that everyone struggles with. And not just in the natural world, but in the spiritual world as well. In fact, whether you’re looking at the news or reading all of the opinions and predictions online, it can be hard to see below the surface and make sense of all that is happening. Often, the more we look, the more hopeless it becomes. In Psalm 91:16, God says, “I will … show him my salvation.” The phrase to “show him” means to “observe, look at with the intent to learn; have vision.” Other translations use the phrase “I will let him see...” OH WOW!
God promises that if we keep our eyes ON Him and our trust IN Him, He will let us see beyond the surface and give us “God-vision.” Using the earlier analogy, He’ll let us see the picture that’s below the surface that we’re struggling to see!
The greatest Artist ever is trying to show you something!
And in His sovereignty, He can use moments like this to open our eyes to see what we’ve never seen before. Maybe He wants to show us something about how we think. Something about how we feel. Something about how we view Him. Something about how we view the world around us. Something about what we truly value or what we place our trust in. Maybe it’s something about what we find our identity in. The list could go on and on. But the truth is without His help, we’ll never see it.
“Open my eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of your law.”
Psalm 119:18
I love the stories in the bible where Jesus opened the eyes of people who couldn’t see. One minute their world was dark … and the next it was bright and brilliant. One minute they heard voices; the next they saw the faces connected to those voices. One minute the smelled smells; the next they saw the origin of those smells. Imagine the way they must have felt to suddenly be able to see their family members for the first time. To look upon the trees, clouds, the sky, the world around them for the first time. The city they lived in. The streets they walked upon. The food that they ate. (This will have to be another blog for another time!) One minute they see darkness; the next they see Jesus. This, at its essence is salvation! Seeing God!
So, let’s leverage this time to stare into the picture of who God is. Look below the surface and ask God to show us His heart. Watch Him open our eyes to the see the 3-D picture that He’s painting through this whole crisis. Want a practical step on how to do this … Read the gospel of John in the bible in the New Testament. It’s an account of Jesus’ life. If you have questions, just email me at wayneasprodites@outlook.com. Once thing is for sure … when we see Him, we’ll never be the same. And when we see Him, we’ll want everyone else to see Him too!
