There is a vast difference in looking on something and seeing through it. Much of our living is like trying to swim in hardened concrete. There is not any depth of spiritual understanding at all. I know something is on the other side of that block wall over there; I just cannot fathom what it is. I am restricted because of my clumsy way of looking at it. Paul in the Bible uses our limited physical vision as a metaphor to introduce Jesus.

Seeing Faith As Seeing The Unseen

2 Corinthians 4:18 KJV Bible: “We look not at the things which are seen; but at the things which are not seen.”

We Christians look at the physical things, but we learn to also look through them, and we see Jesus in every aspect of our lives. Some may think such a concept is at best fanaticism and at worse lunacy, but I see it as symptomatic of abundant living in Christ. For me to live is Christ, and He is just beneath the surface in every aspect of my life.

We are now feverishly exploring Mars. I subscribe to NASA’s news feeds and get images daily of the red planet. NASA hopes to find signs of life by “following the water.” Where there is water, there may be life. The problem is that we can not see water on the planet. However, science has developed instruments such as the spectrograph which can view through the surface clutter and see individual elements. Now, we are quite sure there is water on Mars. In like manner the Christian is so acquainted with Jesus Christ on a personal level, that she witnesses the Eternal in every aspect of her living. Jesus is everywhere!

We see the temporal, but we discern the eternal. However, this is not to say that our spiritual sight is 20/20. We now see through glass with dim eyes. We pierce its clumsy thickness, and often our discernment is darkened by the cataracts of our sinful nature. We are far from perfect, but we know there is the Eternal out there, and in spite of the dirty fog, we find Jesus!

As for me, the first thing I often see is a shadow. I remember watching and playing on the school grounds. Our school had a large playground where we fifth graders took recess. In the morning I would pretend as I watched my shadow. My image, reflected on the ground, appeared long and thin. I liked this because I have always been short and chunky! I played in a fantasy world; I was superman. Up, up and away – time to save the world. The shadow did not look much like me. As the morning wore on, the shadow was brought more into focus, and I also had to come back down to earth and learn my letters and numbers. However, even at it most pointed, it was still just a shadow of the real.

Christ is real, and the real world around us points to Him. The grace of Christ’s salvation brings this to focus in my life, and like that spectrograph, I can now see Christ as my abundant life.

It is like that song, “He was there all the time!”

• He was there all the time

• He was there all the time

• Waiting patiently in line

• He was there all the time

After receiving Jesus Christ as my personal Savior and Beloved Companion, I now see that He never forsakes me, but is with me in every aspect of my life. This is what makes it an abundant life for me!

I remember my Father-in-Law building his storage/working garage. Pop has now moved on to be with Jesus, but I recollect visiting shortly before construction of this pet project. He was excited over getting a local job to demolish an old home in McMinnville, Tennessee. I looked at the antique house, and it appeared as if were a junk pile of blisters waiting for a victim. However, Pop was as excited as a school boy who had just won all the marbles from his fellows. He replied, “This is my new garage! Daily I stopped by, and watched this visionary planed those old planks, sanded those aged blemishes, pulled the rough triangle shaped nails, laugh giddily with anticipation, eyed his newly renovated 2X4’s, and talked to himself as if he were a kid with new toy. Within a few weeks he had his garage. I saw old wood; he saw a new garage. He was a carpenter; I was a skeptic. It is all in the vision!

My dad was also a carpenter. I watched him put up scaffolding for one of his projects. I would see scaffolding; he would see another story to his building. It is all in the vision. He was the carpenter I was the layman! Many people live their lives on the scaffold boards. They work and play there all their life, and never see the real building. They never find abundant life because they never see what life is all about. They never see the bigger picture. The scaffolding is made to be temporary; the building is made to last. Christians are made to last because we have Jesus, the Eternal!

Problems come and problems go. Life is a series of problems. They make life hard, but they also make it interesting. Abundant life is seeing the building beyond the scaffolding. It is seeing the garage beyond the old wood. It is coming down from the shadow and living the real. It is seeing the eternal and not just the temporary! It is found in Jesus Christ!