Believing is Seeing

I look out my window and see green. Trees, bushes, weeds, grass—all green. Generally speaking, when a lady looks out she will see a thousand shades of green. Now I can also see the shades but my senses are overwhelmed with only one color—green. If I take a moment and look more carefully I see Hunter Green, Lime Green, a blueish green, a yellowish green, a dark green and a light green. Even still I haven’t a clue what their real names are.

Why do some see details and others see only the obvious?

The Bible speaks of seeing but not perceiving. Looking but not seeing what’s really there. Seeing without understanding what I’m looking at.

Like when I go into the pantry to get something. I look all over and come out and tell Jan it’s not there. She goes in and, in less than a second, reappears with what I was looking for, hands it to me and gives me the look. Guys know this look. It’s the one that asks the simple question, “Can you be any stupider?”

All I know is it wasn’t there when I looked. I don’t know what she did, but it wasn’t there.

Are women just that much better at seeing things? Do guys only see the obvious and not the details when they enter a pantry? I look at the shelves and see stuff. Why can’t I see the specific?

Answer: because I am seeing but not perceiving. My eyes are taking in the sights but there is no connection with what I am looking for. What I’m searching for may not look like what I’m looking for.

Faith is a visual exercise. By faith I am trusting in something unseen with as much confidence as if it were seen. To find it, I have to focus its image on a point much deeper than the backside of my eyeballs.

If faith required literal sight then seeing would be believing. If that were the case blind people could have no faith and those with 20/20 would have the greatest faith. Fortunately it’s an internal matter.

If I only can use my eyes to trust God, as a guy, I might miss the details by getting focused only on the obvious. But since I get to use faith, the color-blind dog can see the rainbow.

I wish to see all God has for me to see, so I’d better close my literal eyes and open the faith eyes. Wow! Where did all these colors come from?