Do you share God’s vision?
We generally see what we want
to see -- how often do we see with God’s
eyes? In the First Book of Samuel, God
sends the prophet to anoint a new king from
among the sons of Jesse of Bethlehem. Naturally, everyone expects the eldest son to
be chosen; instead, Samuel anoints David, the
youngest, who is tending the sheep as future king of Israel. Not as
man sees does God see, the Lord tells Samuel, because man sees the appearance, but the Lord looks into the heart. David will see with the heart, as is made clear in Psalm 23, for he knows that it
is God who guides him, who leads him. David understands his relationship with the
Lord, and makes every effort to share God’s vision as God’s shepherd-king on
earth.
In John’s Gospel, the
Pharisees have a twisted point of view; they are caught up in their own vision
of how things should be. In contrast to
the blind man whom Jesus heals, the Pharisees suffer from vision that is
becoming dimmer and dimmer until eventually they will be blind – spiritually blind. The blind man himself sees with the heart, is able
to see, because he believes; he
has faith in Jesus even before Jesus has died and risen. His physical blindness is incidental to his
spiritual vision; he sees what the
Pharisees do not, that Jesus is a prophet,
the Son of Man – I was blind and now I see.
Paul, in his Letter to the Ephesians, equates clear vision with faith and blindness with unbelief. If you enter into life with Christ, Paul
tells the Ephesians, you come to see clearly, to see as God sees, to share God’s
vision, for everything exposed by the
light becomes visible. For us today,
Jesus remains that light; through faith, we too can be light in the Lord, sharing clearer vision, sharing God’s vision, knowing
that, if we are open, we who were once blind may now see.
This post is based on Fr.
Pat’s Scripture class.
Image source: Wordle
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