Believing = Seeing

Random thought. How can you see if you are blind?

Ask a blind person and they will tell you they see differently than a person whose eyesight is perfect. Is it perception or definition? Or is it a sense (or many other senses) that kicks in. A snake uses its tongue. A shark uses a sense of smell. A dolphin uses radar. And so on.

How we see others begins with what we believe. If we believe only our eyes allow us to see then we avoid places where our eyes do not work; i.e. a dark room. But if we believe that even in a lightless room we have other means of seeing, like using our hands to guide us, then we eliminate the fear that might come from a limited point of view. Same is true about seeing others, especially seeing the face of God in everyone around us. If we only see a person by the way they dress or the color of their skin or language they speak, then we might only see a homeless man in rags, a tattooed thug that must be up to no good, or a foreigner who is plotting and scheming something dangerous.

But if we believe there is something greater within that person, we begin to see them as God see them; redeemable, forgivable, lovable children with incredible potential.

Throughout Jesus' ministr, great crowds of people would gather to not only hear his words hit to also see what he could do. But before they saw, they first had to believe. This goes against the way of the world today. The world says, "Let me see first, then I will believe." Jesus says the opposite, "First you must believe, and then you will truly see." Such faith opened the eyes of the blind; physically, spiritually and metaphorically. St. Augustine wrote, "Faith is to believe what we do not see. The reward of faith is to see what we believe."

Belief changes the way we see the world around us, which helps to transform the way we participate in the world around us. Jesus gives us a clear vision of heaven here on earth, then and now and evermore. Faith receives its power from him to help us see the glory and power of God surrounding us, from the smallest of flowers to the smelliest of people.

Take a moment to around your environment and see where your faith can witness the glory of God at work.