The Blinds and The Brick

So we fix our eyes not on what is seen,
but on what is unseen,
since what is seen is temporary,
but what is unseen is eternal.
2 Corinthians 4:18 NIV
___

Outside the waiting room window is a brick wall. Because of how the open window blinds were positioned against the lines of the brick wall behind it, my son thought the waiting room was moving.

I told him it was an optical illusion – that his eyes were playing tricks on him – but he didn’t believe me. He squinted his eyes skeptically at me and replied “Well then how come when I close my eyes I see lots of different colors?”

“That’s ANOTHER kind of optical illusion,” I said. “You can see a little bit of light through your eyelids because it’s so bright in here.”

It’s really challenging to explain to a five-year-old why he can’t trust his own eyes… the same eyes that I also ask him to use on a daily basis when he’s looking for the drinking glass RIGHT IN FRONT OF HIM.

It struck me later on how much that exchange was like my conversations with God.

I say with my eyes squinted, skeptically, “God, I keep asking you for wisdom, which you promise you will give generously to anyone who asks without finding fault, all I must do is trust and not doubt. Was I supposed to go pick it up at a P.O. Box or something – because I’m not seeing the wisdom here.”

“God, it looks like everything is ‘stuck’ in my life right now. I’m looking right at this mountain – which you said my mustard seed of faith CAN MOVE – and it isn’t moving!”

“What I’m seeing isn’t making sense.”

That’s when God reveals that I’m just a five year old, hung up on an optical illusion:

An irrelevant timeline.
A temptation.
A fear.

Can I trust that the blinds and the brick aren’t moving, because God says so, even though my eyes say different? Can I trust that my eyes are closed, because God says so, even though I still see color? Can I believe that the RIGHT mountains will move at the RIGHT time because the mountain maker promised it would, even if it’s not today?

So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal. (2 Corinthians 4:18 NIV)

Can I fix my eyes?

___

Dear Lord, You really caught me off guard today. I didn’t expect to find you – your truth for me – in a waiting room today. I forget that you are with me everywhere I go, even on the busy weeks where I didn’t make it a priority to spend time alone with you. Thank you for reminding me that what my five senses find isn’t all there is to life. Fix my eyes. Amen.