Garden of Discipline: Tool of Meditation - Invitation to See
Imagine you could watch the evening news with Jesus, chatting with Him about what you were seeing. Would your perspectives shift? Would you be less anxious? Angry? Would you feel more peace? What about scrolling through social media with Him? Would you perhaps be more compassionate and less judgmental? More prayerful and less outraged?
I would like to propose that not only are these scenarios possible, they are available to you at any moment, day or night. Through the ministry of the Holy Spirit, a willing and earnest follower of Jesus can literally see all of life through His eyes. To be sure, this is a lifelong journey that we can only make progress along, not perfection. It’s actually a form of meditation that Jesus called “abiding.” (John 15)
If we could see the world, ourselves, our neighbor with the eyes of Jesus, what would change? Everything, I think. Brandon Heath wrote and sang a song called Give Me Your Eyes that expresses this possibility beautifully.
Give me Your eyes for just one second
Give me Your eyes so I can see
Everything that I keep missin’
Give me Your love for humanity
Give me Your arms for the broken-hearted
The ones that are far beyond my reach
Give me Your heart for the ones forgotten
Give me Your eyes so I can see
Bob Pierce, former president of World Vision, famously prayed, “Let my heart be broken by the things that break the heart of God.” A willingness to see with the eyes of God will not come without cost. It will change us, if we let it.
This alternative way of seeing, abiding, meditating is a two-way street. At the same time that our vision of the world is revealed in a new way, the world can reveal things about God that we hadn’t previously understood. As I’ve said before, God has never stopped speaking. And the ways He speaks are as vast and unique as humanity. He will use any and all methods to show mankind that we are loved beyond measure.
One way to think of this type of meditation is that we’re looking at God through something else that magnifies or illuminates a fresh aspect of Him. Nature, Scripture or even social media can lead us to see something of God’s character or majesty that we hadn’t considered before. Saint Patrick saw the Trinity in a three leaf clover. Reading how God interacted with a thrown away woman in the Old Testament can remind me that He also sees me. A science geek can post something that boggles my mind in the best possible way.
Do you doubt that social media can be redeemed to such an extent as to bring glory to God? In a recent post from Facebook this caption accompanies the following images, "The top image is a graph of the first nine harmonics of a harmonic series. The bottom image is an x-ray of the inner structure of a conch shell."
I don't even really understand what the caption means, but I can worship God for revealing Himself in the things He has made. To think that God has designed the hidden inner home of a sea creature to mirror invisible waves of sound, causes me to stand in awe and worship my Creator anew. And if I am actively listening for God’s voice while scrolling through social media, there may be several Scriptures that immediately spring to mind.
In 1 Samuel 16:7, God has sent Samuel to a shepherding family in Bethlehem to anoint a new king for Israel. Somehow Samuel knows that none of the first several young men he meets are the chosen one. “For the Lord sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart.” In this x-ray image of a conch shell, I see the Truth from a new angle. As the Lord values the beautiful design of this creature that we wouldn’t even be able to appreciate until x-ray was invented, so He values and molds the hearts of those who trust in Him.
In a sense, both images display something that has been hidden. Jesus said, “For nothing is hidden that will not be made manifest, nor is anything secret that will not be known and come to light.” (Luke 8:17) Even the inside of a fragile shell on the ocean bottom or sound waves are not invisible to God. Neither are you. Your most secret secrets that no one knows, are known to your Heavenly Father. And the things you’ve suffered that you must keep hidden, will one day be revealed and justly dealt with.
God is spirit and as such, invisible. This can be a challenge and cause people to question faith. But the Bible says that He has been revealing Himself through the things that He made since before time began. “For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse.” (Romans 1:20)
God wants to be known by you, by each of us. He has always been inviting mankind to walk in the cool of the day just as He did with Adam and Eve. Or with Moses, whom He spoke to as a friend. (Exodus 33:11) Or with Jesus who invites us to participate in their eternal love affair: “As the Father has loved Me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love.” (John 15:9)
Meditation is an invitation to see and to be seen, to know and to be known by the unseen yet knowable God.
