Not Seen, Not There

How many people have this misconception?

Evidently, a lot.

Little kids in hide-and-seek: Well, I don't see them hiding here. I guess they aren't here. I give up.

 

Older kids: Well, I don't see the dirt and dust, so it's definitely not there and I don't have to clean it.

 

Adults: I can't see God. He must not be there.

 

The last one isn't just adults, I promise. Too many people have this idea, "If I can't see it, it's not there."

It's hard to trust in something that our human eyes can't comprehend and can't acknowledge the presence. It's a natural response to a LOT of things to have to be able to see something before believing it.

That's actually how poor 'Doubting' Thomas made his 'doubting' debut.

 

So the other disciples were saying to him, "We have seen the Lord!" But he said to them, "Unless I see in HIs hands the imprint of the nails, and put my finger into the place of the nails, and put my hand into His side, I will not believe.

- John 20:25 -

 

But you know what? It's called... faith.

 

He said to them, "Why are you afraid, you men of little faith?"

-Matthew 8:26a-

 

Believe me (pun unintended!), I totally thought about this for an hour and a half. I was assigned the chore (well, actually, it was one of the rare ones that I got paid for! :D Mwhahahahahaaa...) to clean off the tops of the cabinets in the kitchens (it's complicated, but there's this little decorative railing with a place for whatever you want to put up there for décor) and I agreed thinking, Oh, come on... it can't be that hard. Hmph. I'll dust it, wipe it down a little, and claim my reward!

Uh, not.

Evidently, it hasn't been cleaned for a while (hehe...), hence the layers of grime... and the layers... and the layers. Whenever I thought I was finished, I found another spot! (I still don't think it ended up perfect, but I mean, seriously... I spent over an hour on that.)

I cleaned.. and cleaned... and cleaned...

I thought and prayed while I did it (even though I felt it was somewhat a waste of part of my Saturday *sighs because it's almost gone*), and I came up with two reasons to tell you about this today

 

1. I felt like slacking off halfway through. I mean, seriously? Who is actually going to climb up ONTO the counter, peer OVER the little railing and inspect the ENTIRE railing around the ENTIRE kitchen? no one... but...

Just because you can't see it, doesn't mean it's not there. At first, I couldn't see any of it, so I thought there wasn't much there. And besides, God would know that I never finished the job - and so would I.

 

2. All those layers of grime pile up... like our sins. We might think that no one sees them, and that no one knows they're there, but they are.

 

Be sure your sins will find you out.

- Numbers 32:23b -

 

Others might not see our sins, and think they're not there (they might even think we're perfect - ha!)... but they are.

And most of all, God knows. And we know.

 

We can also take that another way.

If we don't scrape off the rough scabs and edges of our grudges and wounds... if we don't forgive.... if we don't apologize... if it builds up...

It's going to take a lot longer to clean off all that piled up grime (wounds, hurts, tears) and even longer to fix your relationship with that person.

 

I know this was somewhat short and I haven't been able to do this as often since I was sick several days (Thank the Lord I'm healed! :)) and tried to do a variety of other things for part of my Bible. It's not a great excuse, but I have been out and about for a while. :/

 

Anyways, I'm planning on doing a little life update to tell you guys some exciting news for me!

~ Light4theLord

To God be the Glory!