Daily Devotion – June 26, 2020 – Steve Trandem
I Cor. 13:12 The Message
“We don’t yet see things clearly. We’re squinting in a fog, peering through a mist. But it won’t be long before the weather clears and the sun shines bright! We’ll see it all then, see it all as clearly as God sees us, knowing him directly just as he knows us!”
One thing this time of isolation and quarantine has done for me is that it has allowed me to realize just how little I haven’t been seeing in my daily life. I have “looked” at many things but have not “seen them clearly.” Lately, I have had more time (a LOT more time) to look.
I preached a sermon back in my Hawley days, about forty years ago, along similar lines. I asked the congregation what color yield signs were. Most shouted out “yellow and black.” By then almost all yield signs were actually red and white. But folks weren’t noticing. One young woman said she was sure there were many yellow and black yield signs in the area. Months later, she reported that she had been driving in rural North Dakota and had finally seen a yellow and black yield sign. Looking, but not seeing clearly.
Did you know there is a tiny little arrow/triangle next to the gas pump icon on your dash? Until someone told me, I had never seen it, even though I had looked at it hundreds of times. It indicates which side of the vehicle the tank is located. Check it out.
I was using my shop vise a few weeks ago, and, for the first time in perhaps thirty years, noticed that there was a rounded section below the flat area that could be used to hold pipe. It was there all the time, but I was oblivious to it. Sure would have made a few things easier if I had “seen it clearly” years ago.
Last month I was having trouble with my tri-square being out-of-square. I Googled how to adjust it, and learned that there was a small knurled knob that, if one unscrewed it, contained a sharp metal scribe. I know that I have used that tri-square for over forty years, but never noticed that little knob, or, if I did, never wondered what it was for.
All of these incidents have alerted me to the fact that I have missed seeing much. I am now wondering what else I have not seen, and am trying to be deliberate about REALLY seeing things. And really seeing people; seeing them as neighbor. And really seeing these “times.” Looking for the life lessons and the change in perception that come with being forced to live in a different way. Things, people, times….all too easy to really miss seeing when business went on as usual.
Lord, who sees us so clearly and yet loves us so dearly, grace us with better vision, to see your world and your people through your eyes. Amen.
