The Heavenly Optometrist

Today was "spoil Sara" day - no I didn't spend it at a day spa, but rather at a women's conference in the morning and with long time friends in the afternoon. Sans children! The conference's keynote address called our attention to what it means to abide in God's presence. Surprisingly, no Brother Lawrence comments were made - but several great quotes from Augustine. I was challenged to remember how Adam and Eve stopped seeing God thru creation to simply focusing on His creation as an end in itself. As a result, we've inherited our parents' bad vision. God, in his infinite grace, started working on fixing our myopia right away, using pictures to do so. Our speaker pointed out that the tablernacle/sacrificial system is a picture of our standing with God - that he is holy and we are not, and there is a process for us to go through to become holy in his sight. A tabernacle gate to enter, washing, sacrifice & blood, lamps, bread, incense, and lastly a heavy curtain to pass through for us to be in his presence. And a special man was needed to assist in this, someone who wore the names of God's people on his shoulder and had "holy to the LORD" written on his forehead, just in case we forgot that we weren't.

But our speaker was quick to point out that these things were not where our vision is to stop. No, our vision is to go through these things to see the Redeemer God sent - Jesus. He is described as the gate, the living water, the lamb, the light of the world, the bread of life, a fragrant offering, and the One who tears apart the curtain allowing us to enter God's presence... he welcomes us into his home and asks us to abide there with him. We're not weekend guests.

It is here, when we show our love by obeying his commands, that our vision is corrected and we see Him in all parts of life. As the disciples couldn't recognize Jesus walking on the water because of their fear of the storm's waves, we often don't see Him through the battering waves we personally face. Circumstances will still be around us, but Christ is always there. Perhaps you have spiritual astigmatism, where you see problems doubly or quadruply, multiplying them. It's hard to get a clear picture of how to live as a Christian and abide in Christ when everything's fuzzy. Put on the lenses of loving obedience to Christ. We'll see the big uglies with better definition, but we'll also see Christ through all that.

It made me consider: How's my vision?

-Sara