WHAT DO WE SEE WHEN THINGS COME INTO OUR VIEW? I truly believe that one of the most precious
gifts God has given us is our sight! I
absolutely love seeing sunrise color-bursts that bring the morning sky
alive with God’s promises for the new day!
I am held in awe when I gaze upon the silvery edged sliver of a midnight
moon that illuminates the night-covered earth with a soft luminescence! And then there are the countless things that
come into our view throughout the course of our entire day – for as long as our
eyes are open. And when we see … we
think. We assess. We judge.
We decide. Based on all of that,
what we’ve seen gets placed into a specific category of our heart, or our mind,
or our soul. We love the sights – and we
cherish. We hold our thoughts – or they
hold us. We bury the images – or we
release them. And all of this occurs … because
we have seen.
I share this from the depths of my heart today, because in the
past month God has used a favorite plant of mine to teach me a very powerful
lesson. A few summers ago, we bought a
less than flourishing plant on clearance for just a few dollars, but I love the
tropical flowers of the hibiscus plant, so I could not pass up this bargain! I am always sad when the outdoor season is
ended because I know how much I will miss the flowers! We have tried transplanting them in our
outdoor natural area at the back of our yard, but when Spring arrives, unfortunately,
our hibiscus plants have never survived. Well, it was worth a try! So after a few years of trying that, each
year we would just go and purchase a new plant and start over again ~ being
delighted daily with the beauty of these amazing, unique blossoms!! But, when we purchased this imperfect plant a
few years ago and set it out in the front of our house, we were astounded at
how it flourished! In fact, it was so
beautiful and filled with flowers that we did not have the heart to transplant
it in the back-yard in yet another attempt to see if it would survive the frigid
Minnesota winter. We deducted that doing
so would just send it to its wintery death.
So, we brought it inside to winter with us where it was warm and
protected. We did this for the past few
years, and the plant would go through a slightly dormant change, but kept most
of its leaves which stayed green. When
it came time to go to the greenhouses in the area to choose our outdoor summer
plants, we would just set out the hibiscus plant with the others, and the fresh
air and warm sunshine and warm breezes brought new life to it! Throughout each summer it would flourish and
become more beautiful than the year before.
This past autumn season, we once again brought the plant inside and did
an exact repeat of previous winters.
Only this year, after it had stopped blooming indoors, it began to lose
its leaves. Coming home every day, I
would discover there were more dry and shriveled up leaves to greet me, until
after three months of loving care, the barren branches sported one lone
yellowish leaf. That was it.
I actually got down on my hands and knees to examine my favorite
plant, not wanting to entertain the thought that it was beyond saving and that
it should be thrown out. After these recent
years of enjoyment, my desire was to save it so I could continue to enjoy its
beauty again. Then I began to wonder –
does this plant go through a fully dormant state, even though it did not the
previous years? Perhaps there was yet
hope. My eyes peered closely over the stark,
dead-looking branches … and when I thought I saw some tiny bumps beneath the
bark, my heart leaped with excitement!
Could these be buds forming with new life? And then over the next few days I saw the
faintest sign of green bursting forth from these swelled bumps. Soon there were baby leaves emerging from these
hundreds of spots all over the branches!
I was seeing life … new life!
Abundance was springing forth from what had looked dead!
It was like God was speaking to me in this miraculous
transformation: “Debbie, whose eyes are
you looking through when you see things?
Are you seeing with your natural eyes … or are you looking through My
eyes? There’s no comparison in what you
see and understand on your own to what you can see and know if you will seek to
see through My vision! That’s what I
want for you … and for all of My people!
Open your eyes to see what is beneath the surface, to what is hidden
below. That’s where true life is ~ with
all of its truth and treasures and wisdom, and greater depths of beauty than
you can ever see on your own!”
Somehow I just knew that God was revealing this – not just for
my love of summer plants and their magnificent beauty, but for something much
deeper. I knew He was teaching me a
lesson to equip me for these days we are living in. Our world seems to be imploding in every arena: the extreme weather with massive fires and
frigid cold and devastating tornados, hurricanes, earthquakes, and tsunamis … the
extreme hatred consuming humans until they explode with words and bullets destroying
lives … the extreme volatility and fear in the swinging financial markets … the
extreme push to end life in the womb or just out of the womb - before it can ever
be lived … the extreme demands of politicians who want it their way instead of
God’s way for our nation … the extreme escalation of evil in the war-torn
Middle East countries – in an ongoing attempt to take out Israel, God’s chosen
nation … the extreme and relentless attacks of the enemy upon God’s people and
God’s churches – those who choose to not waver and give in to a watered-down Gospel,
but to stand true to the message of Jesus Christ – because Satan wants us to
give up and quit! And I could go on and
on …
But you know what? There
is MORE than meets the eye in all of the above extremes I’ve just listed. We see the obvious of what the enemy wants us
to see. But don’t you ever forget that
he is deceitful and he is a liar and he is out to kill and destroy anything and
everything that is God-related and holy and righteous and pure. We need to stop looking at things in life with
our own eyes and seek to see what our God sees!
If we ask, He will reveal the deeper meanings and hidden plans to our
hearts. His wisdom will help us be
discerning through the power of the Holy Spirit; and as His people, we will
understand things that we never have before.
If we ask, He promises to hear and answer our prayers. He knows the longing of our hearts to see and
know what He sees and knows, which is His Truth. Our prayer is that God will always keep us on
track with Him, and that in the midst of the chaos and turmoil and death, we
will experience His promised peace – and a life that is lived as He designed
for it to be lived as His children.
So from this day forward, my challenge to you is when you see
what you think you see, ask God for an extra measure of HIS vision and
understanding. What you first see as hopeless
and dead, is really just a time of preparation and transition to the reality of
God’s plan to burst forth with hope and new life on the stage of this groaning
world … in people, in circumstances, in homes, churches, and nations! Dear ones, we can shudder at the unleashed
evil all around us … or we can embrace the righteousness of God! In the end, God WINS! In the end, we WIN! When we know Jesus personally, we can be
assured that Heaven is our Home! But, let’s
not go there alone, let’s get down on our hands and knees and search for the
hidden signs of life amongst the dying!
Let’s declare that we will be engaged in rescuing those living as dead –
and seeing them emerge from dying into living the new life that Christ came to
give!! We can do nothing greater than
this! Onward through 2019 ~ let’s
continue to “AWAKE! ARISE! and SHINE!”
REMEMBER . . .
“I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go;
I will counsel you with my eye upon you.”
I will counsel you with my eye upon you.”
“ … and lo, I am with you always [remaining
with you perpetually—
regardless
of circumstance, and on every occasion],
even to the end of the age.”
even to the end of the age.”
Matthew
28:20b
Joyfully Serving Christ . . .
Pastor Doug and Debbie
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