Those joys were so small that they passed unnoticed, like gold in sand, and at bad moments she could see nothing but the pain, nothing but sand; but there were good moments too when she saw nothing but the joy, nothing but gold.Leo Tolstoy in Anna Karenina
Last night brilliant splashes of green and red waved gently in the black night sky like curtains in a breeze. They say the northern lights were visible all the way down into the southern United States. I find this ironic since I am visiting Anchorage Alaska where people see the Aurora Borealis frequently. I missed it. I am choosing to believe the show was hidden by cloud cover here, because I would rather not believe that I missed seeing something spectacular only because I was snuggled deep under the covers.
Life is like that. I am often oblivious to cosmic dances of joy. Oblivious because I can't see past my local clouds. I miss them because my eyes are shut or because I don't want to leave the comfort of my warm blankets.
Beautiful realities fill the sky whether my eyes are open to them or not.
A man who moved here a couple of years ago told us about an experience on a boardwalk near town that winds through reedy marshes near Cook Inlet. He was there, walking his dogs, and came across an energized knot of people peering through cameras with giant lenses attached. "What are you seeing?" Ian asked. "Birds! Don't you see them? There, and there, and there!" He didn't see. Veteran bird watchers did.
When the blind man cried out to Jesus, Jesus stopped. He asked "What do you want me to do for you?" (Mark 10:46 - 52)
He cried out, and I cry out too, "Rabbi, I want to see!"
A good thought....slowing down to "see." Any tips as to how to do this amidst the hurries of daily life?
ReplyDeleteI think we like to blame our blindness on busyness, but it goes deeper than that. Jesus said "You will indeed hear but never understand, and you will indeed see but never perceive. For this people’s heart has grown dull, and with their ears they can barely hear, and their eyes they have closed,lest they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears and understand with their heart and turn, and I would heal them."(Matthew 13:14-16)
ReplyDeleteIt isn't as easy as resolving to see. We always want to do something, to fix it ourselves, because acknowledging that we can't do better makes us feel vulnerable. I think the first step know we are blind, then the only way to see is to cry out to Jesus for mercy and his healing touch.