Over the years and especially lately, I’ve had this thought about something that Jesus would say. He talked about having “eyes to see” and “ears to hear”. Apparently by saying this, He was also saying there was the possibility that we couldn’t “see” or wouldn’t “hear”. I’m familiar with that reality in that much of my life and experience is simply ordinary. No burning bushes, no burning in the bones, no estatic experiences or heavenly visions. My eyes are attuned to the stuff of this earth! But Jesus talks about a different reality and THAT reality is something I’ve been thinking about a LOT….

So, prophets and kings desired to see, but didn’t. So clearly it’s not about “desire”. Even those enlisted in God’s purposes didn’t receive it or hear it, even though they wanted to. And THAT point is worth a pause isn’t it? This reminds me that unless God moves in our life, we simply cannot experience Him. We are completely dependent upon His outside working ON us, IF we are to “see” or “hear” Him at all. Scripture teaches that apart from Him and His intervention in our life, spiritually, we are dead. Because of what I do, I’ve been around my fair share of people who are dying, or who have died. When we are in that place, there is nothing we can do…about anything. We can’t see, hear, experience, think, relate, dream, feel….nothing. That’s the nature of death.

Notice what God has done? And why! He “made us ALIVE together with Christ”. So, IF we want to experience LIFE, scripture teaches that life is found in connection with Christ. So how’s life going? Does it feel “ALIVE”? I think it’s good to ask ourselves that from time to time to take a “pulse” of how things are. Because what’s our default? What’s our natural tendency? It’s to try and find some kind of “life” apart from connection to Christ. Why do we do this? Because we can’t “see” or “hear”. This is one of the things wrong with us. AND because of this, we tend to miss His motive for wanting to have a relationship with us. Many people that I talk with feel that God is anything BUT merciful or loving (we’ll save that for another entry)! But isn’t that what this text says? God wants a relationship with us because He is merciful and loving! I believe this! I’ve seen it and experienced it myself. So what do we need? Resurrection! We need the scales to fall off our eyes and to see God clearly and to know Christ who IS our life (whether you can see it or not!).

The aim is to encourage and “enlighten” and perhaps give some food for thought.