I see people, but I can’t see them very clearly. They look like trees walking around. —You have eyes—can’t you see? Won’t you ever learn or understand? Are your hearts too hard to take it in? —You are seeing things merely from a human point of view, not from God’s. —Look beneath the surface so you can judge correctly.
So we have stopped evaluating others by what the world thinks about them. Once I mistakenly thought of Christ that way, as though he were merely a human being. How differently I think about him now! —For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.
Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is.
…may [God] give you the Spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him, having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe, according to the working of his great might.
Mk.8:24 NLT; Mk.8:18 NLT; Mk.8:33 NLT; Jn. 7:24 NLT; II Cor. 5:16 NLT; I Cor. 13:12 ESV; I Jn. 3:2 ESV; Eph 1:17-19 ESV
Things are not always what they seem. The blind man knew there was a world out there he could not see. Jesus fixed his vision. The disciples saw a hungry crowd and not nearly enough food to feed them. They were clueless despite having already witnessed Jesus multiplying loaves and fishes to satisfy a multitude of 5,000 people!
How are we supposed to find enough food for them here in the wilderness?
Jesus once again walked them through the process. He took what they had, blessed it and told them to pass it out. They participated in the miracle. They counted the loaves and fishes and leftovers…But just hours later were stressing over having forgotten to pack a lunch.
They had seen but had not comprehended. Yes, they remembered numbers but they didn’t fathom the power of God on tap for their every need.
So Jesus took this physical reality—a forgotten lunch, and turned it into a spiritual object lesson. He wasn’t worried about this trivial forgetfulness to bring bread along, He wanted them to grasp God’s great power and never to forget it. He was shaping men who could see beyond the seen…
And they would learn to see this way, with eyes of faith; we know this when we watch their lives as recorded in Acts and when we read Peter’s own letter:
Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls. I Pet.1:8-9 ESV
May God give us eyes to see beyond the physical and to remember what is worth remembering, not just numbers and faces but what God is able to do when we present these to Him!
–LS