“Watching takes time. What isn’t quite so clear is that seeing takes time. ‘They have eyes and see not,’ Isaiah warns, speaking, it seems, about people who glance and look away, who skim surfaces, hunting for what confirms their expectations, who look only long enough to make the snap judgments or quick decisions that don’t require wrestling with ambiguities.” page 74

Sometimes we think that because we have seen something with our eyes, that we have a good understanding of what we are seeing. But there is always more going on than we can see or fully grasp. 

In Sunday’s sermon, Seminarian Nicole Romero pointed out how God’s sense of time and our sense of time vary greatly! While we are often limited by what we can see before us, God has no such limits. And God’s eyes can see far beyond our concerns of the present moment. That is an important idea for us to understand right now. 

The Coronavirus is limiting what we can do in so many ways. But God is never limited. God is still working, seeking to bring healing in our lives, beyond what we can see. In Genesis 32 we read that Jacob is so anxious about meeting his brother, and receiving the wrath that he knew he deserved for betraying him, that he wrestled with God for a whole night. 

God spared his life. But Jacob had no assurance that his brother would do the same. In the next chapter we read how Jacob approached his brother in fear, but in finding acceptance, proclaimed that seeing him was like seeing the face of God, because his brother spared his life as well.

Pray that God would help you see His face this week, so that you can show God’s face to those around you.

This week’s devotions are based on the book Word by Word: A Daily Spiritual Practice by Marilyn McEntyre. Eerdmans, Grand Rapids. 2016.