Seeing God in All the Right Places

"Amazing Grace, How Sweet the Sound, 

that saved a wretch like me. 

I once was lost but now I'm found, 

T'was blind but now I SEE!!"

 Praise god

How clearly do you see God in your everyday world? I am so delighted when I see Him through other people, unexplainable events and when His words jump off the page from a scripture that I have read

countless times before. 

When I was a young mother, two of my favorite authors were Catherine Marshall and Marjorie Holmes. In Marjorie Holmes' book, "How Can I Find You God?" she named a variety of ways that we can find Him. Some I have already mentioned, but she added more: "Reading, birth, death, work, nature, church prayer, the arts, pain, the Holy Spirit and Loving." The longer I live, the more I find God in unexpected places. Many of the places she had mentioned in the book, but it was not until I went through another life experience that I would have a deeper understanding of what she had written in each chapter. Catherine Marshall's book, "The Helper,"describes so many ways the Holy Spirit deepens our awareness of who God is.
In a song I used to sing called, "He Was There all the Time," it gives a similar message of how God's Presence can go unnoticed, but He is still there.
Reading God's Word, reading inspirational books and singing inspirational songs have all planted the awareness of God deep within me. They prepared me for the dark times of my soul. Just like putting on a pair of glasses, in which the lens prescription has been prepared just for me, I sense that God has prepared special lenses for me to see Him over the years. I have KNOWN Him, not just about Him. It is a daily seeking after His heart.
And yet in this current season of my life, it is harder to see Him. I KNOW He has not left me, but this grief feels like a thick fog where I can't see much further than right now. I am told the fog will lift gradually, as I heal. For now, I just have to trust, wait and hold up my arms to be held by Him.

No words are needed.

One morning when I was seeking Him, I felt the Holy Spirit lead me to take off my glasses and hold them up to the lamplight. Sure enough, my glasses were so smudged that I was amazed that I could see anything. I quickly got a cloth and cleaned them. In the middle of my day, I held them up to the light again. They were smudged again. Going through my daily routine, I must, unconsciously, reach for my glasses and smudge then up repeatedly. Probably thinking by readjusting them, I will see clearer, but self adjustment does not help and even smudges them more. A lot of times, I just strain to see through them, forgetting that I can hold them up to the light and see that once again they need to be cleaned.
I think the Holy Spirit had a deeper message for me. I need to hold up my spiritual lenses, created just for my heart sight, to the Light, frequently throughout the day and make sure that my lenses are clear enough to see what God is showing me without straining to see. God knows what you need. Seek the Great Physician to help you see with the eyes of your heart. Hold the lenses to the Light frequently, throughout the day and make sure that they are clean enough to see Him through.

If I take off my glasses altogether, everything is pretty much a blur, like trying to see in a fog. Trying to wear someone else's glasses does not help either. God has a prescription for each of us. We may all have similar frames that our lenses fit in, giving them structure to sit on our ears and nose, but the lenses are just for us.(Sort of like, we may all read the Scripture and pray, but God will give us what WE need when we seek Him)
Another favorite author of mine is John Ortberg. I love his book, "God Is Closer Than You Think." He tells us that God is active in our lives whether we can see Him or not and describes things that may be clouding our perceptions. Our lives are so much more than what we can see, taste, feel, hear or smell. Let the Holy Spirit put the perfect lenses on the eyes of your heart, clean them frequently in the Light and see the world through God's perspective. God's Kingdom is waiting for your discovery.

Your Sister in Christ