Seeing Clearly

“And I will give them a heart to know (recognize, understand,

 and be acquainted with) Me, that I am the Lord; and they will be My people,

and I will be their God, for they will return to Me with their whole heart.”

Jeremiah 24:7

(amplified bible)

This past weekend my Husband and I went to Santa Cruz. The hotel that we stayed in had a view of the ocean, and it was absolutely beautiful. It has always been our dream to purchase an ocean view house there someday to retire in.

During our stay we decided to drive down along the coast and look at some of the houses that were for sale. The houses that we loved the most had these huge, expansive windows that stretched from one end of the front of the house to the other. We loved how the owners were able to look out and see nothing but the ocean in front of them.

As we looked from house to house, I began to notice something. A lot of the houses that I saw had windows installed with sectioned off panes in them. The more houses that I saw like this, the more it bothered me. It bothered me because I wondered why anyone would have wanted to “obstruct” their otherwise “unobstructed” magnificent view of the ocean.

I began to turn that word, “obstructed” over and over in my head. I began to wonder how many things in my life had become like those houses. Although they were set in a wonderful place of privilege, and they were even “positioned” correctly to take in all of the beauty being offered, still many of them had an obstructed view of all that was before them. I began to wonder why they had allowed these obstructions to be there. Then I began to wonder if they even realized that they were there. It seems to me that if you continue to “look” out of the same windows day after day after day, they eventually begin to fade. After awhile, you simply become “used” to the view through those windows, and you simply accept it, without question.

Are there places with “obstructed” views in our lives also? Have we continued to “look” at certain situations, or even certain people, and somehow simply accepted our limited view of what it, or what they, really “look” like to us? Have we allowed our “sectioned off view” in these circumstances or situations to become all that we see, until we really don’t “see” these things clearly at all? Are we in the “correct” position in some areas of our lives, but still not able to “see” our way through them correctly?

If our lives are anything like these houses, then we must ask the Lord to give us an “unobstructed” view of any of these things that we are not seeing clearly. We must ask Him to reveal those places in our lives and then ask Him to show us what the “obstructions” are really made up of. Are they places of hurt or pain that have caused a division inside of us, or could they be places of sin that we have kept hidden in our hearts? Are there places of pride or unforgiveness that have been allowed to harden and form a barrier in between us and the Lord, or in between us and others?

“Dear Lord Jesus, I do not want to live a life built up with walls that only obstruct my ability to see clearly. I want to see You and to know You as You truly are. I want my life to be a living testimony of Your love and goodness to others. If I cannot see clearly myself, then I will never be able to help others see clearly either. Please, help us to see what is right in front of us, Lord, and also help us to see past it too. Give us a heart to appreciate the places of beauty and privilege that you have given to us. Help us to see, Lord, with Your eyes, and even more importantly, with Your heart. Amen.”

By Beverley A. Napier