Their eyes are losing their ability to see God. All over, people are increasingly failing to see God. This is the God who was so apparent to millions a few generations ago.
This spreading blindness is changing everything about our lives. Congressmen now vote on legislation without reference to the great lawgiver. Teachers teach with no thought given to the reality of God in the universe. Parents raise their children with hardly a mention of their ultimate father.
This encroaching darkness is robbing us of the very things that make human life so worthwhile and lovely. It professes to be enlightenment but it is a virus whose most evident symptom is an inability to see God.
Now I know that seeing God isn’t the easiest thing in the world. After all, it is hard to see the invisible. To be able to see God you have to be able to see the invisible. “So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.” (2 Corinthians 4:18). “He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation.” (Colossians 1:15).
But, just because He is invisible doesn’t mean that we can’t see Him. Physical eyes can’t see Him. But that doesn’t mean that we don’t perceive that He is there. A songwriter stated an eternal truth when he said, “The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands.” (Psalms 19:1). A latter prophet said, “For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities--his eternal power and divine nature--have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse.” (Romans 1:20).
Did you catch that? God’s invisible qualities have been clearly seen. There is power in that statement. Power to transform the whole way you and I look at life.
The songwriter and the prophet together propose the truth that you can see God in the amazing creation He has given to us.
This raises an interesting question. Where do you and I see God? What do you look at with your physical eyes that make your spiritual eyes see God? While we live in an increasingly man made environment of concrete, steel and glass we need to take the time to look at our whole environment.
Let me give an example that inspired me recently. While at a Christian Evidences conference recently I was privileged to be in a lecture about neuroscience. Simply put, this is the study of how the brain works. To the casual observer the brain looks like it is just a wrinkled blob of grey jelly. We know it is more than that because it is our brain that gives us the ability to “know” anything. With the aid of electron microscopes and other amazing machines and techniques the neuroscientists have been able to study the amazing electrical processes of the brain. They have a long way to go but what they have discovered is an incredibly complex organ that points to the existence of designer. There is no way you can look at it and conclude that it was the product of mindless evolution. It declares the glory of God.
In a completely different part of the creation a baby is born. This one I am thinking is a boy. He is only days old and already he is doing things that were never taught him. Things that he needs to do to survive. Who taught him such things? His beauty amazes me. His learning curve astounds me. I also know that I love him and that he is beginning to love me. The baby boy declares the glory of God.
What do you see that cries the glory of God? You and I need to remind ourselves of that sense of wonder we get when we truly consider how we are fearfully and wonderfully made (Psalm 139:14).
In doing so we push back the darkness. We shine our light and others start to see God behind the glory. We are to be what Jesus told us to be. “In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven.” (Matthew 5:16).
God is not some private belief that we don’t share with others. He is the most public belief. He is everywhere in His creation. Don’t let the blind tell the sighted to close their eyes. Those with sight need to be sharing the wonder of what they see with their children, their families, their neighbors and the whole world.
More recent songwriters ask the question, “Do you see what I see?”. Truly, do you see what I see?
