What do you see?

We have eyes, but do we really see?  On Saturday Richard and Will went to go buy a fireplace screen.  Audra and I were out Christmas shopping when my phone rang.  Richard's voice asked, "Do we have any fireplace tools?"  "Hmmm... I don't know," I replied.  "We used to have them, but I don't know if we brought them when we moved last year.  Maybe they are in the attic or the shed, but I haven't seen them."    Later that day, after Richard had purchased new tools, our eyes were suddenly opened.  "Look.  There's our old fireplace tools."  And there they were--sitting NEXT TO THE FIREPLACE!  They had been there since we moved in last January.  We looked past them everyday, but we never really saw them.  It made me wonder what else I am looking past everyday and not really seeing.
  
 I can be blind to things (and people) that have become too familiar.  But I can also be blind to what God is doing in and around me.  I can become so familiar with his presence in my life that I am blind to the difference he makes and the power and strength that he gives.  I have a new friend who is physically blind. Even though she can't see what I look like, she was able to see a part of me that sometimes  I fail to see.  She writes, "I think there is an inner peace about you... the calmness and serenity that radiates from you...fills me with a warmth of spirit and inspires me to be more peaceful in myself." 


'Calmness', 'peace', 'serenity'--I am definitely not seeing those things.  I see the laundry, the dust, the desk piled with papers, the extra pounds, and my 'to do' list.  It took 10 months for me to see the fire place tools that were sitting right in front of me so how can I expect to see God?  I can only see him if I stop focusing on what it seen and focus instead on what is unseen.  "For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal." (2Cor. 4:18)  It took someone who was physically blind to see  that I have the peace that passes all understanding inside me. 

How about you?  Are you blind to what God is doing?  Can you see the difference he makes in your life?  Or has he become so familiar that you fail to see Him.  "Honey, do we still have God in our lives?"  "Hmmmm... I don't know.  We used to have him, but I don't know if he is still here.  He may be around here somewhere, but I haven't seen him."  


Lord, open our eyes to your presence in our lives.  Help us to see you at work in and around us.  Don't let us focus only on those things we can see.  Help us to see the unseen.