trbccoffeebreak

“So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.” 2 Corinthians 4:18

The other day, I was folding a week’s worth of laundry after sickness had hit our home. I felt behind on everything in life, thus I wasn’t bent to focus on anything except the overwhelmingly dull view of my catch-up schedule. As I formed my piles of clean shirts and pants, movement caught my eye outside my window.

In my rusty-colored woods, I saw a red-tailed hawk being chased by a crow. It landed on a tall branch. As I fixed my eyes on the beautiful bird that I only get to see occasionally, I noticed more movement below it: a white-tailed deer with a russet-colored coat. I then watched in awe and a little bit of dismay when the brazen crow circled the majestic hawk and clipped the hawk’s wing with his beak. In my woods that seemed to be only a dismal brown smudge of winter with a slush of melting snow on the side, rather than the vibrant green of spring and summer, there was more wonder and beauty to behold than first met the eye. I never would have seen any of this, if I hadn’t looked up from what my eyes had landed on (that huge pile of overdue laundry) with my overwhelm.

There’s something to be seen in the brown days of winter. It may blend in because of how it’s colored to be camouflaged into the vista before you. You really have to watch during those times. You have to be willing to pay attention, to watch, and to listen. In the stillness of melting snow, you have to let your senses come alive to see what is moving before your very eyes.

My experience that day was, of course, an analogy to the winters of life. Sometimes it’s hard to see the good or the beauty when our hearts are overwhelmed by cold seasons. We long for warmth and wonder in those times, but sometimes all our eyes can focus on is the bare branches. If we look up, though, we can choose to focus our eyes on the ever-present beauty of Christ. He is the One who paints what is true, noble, right, pure, lovely, and admirable into our world even when what’s seen doesn’t look like any of those things.

This is what the author of Hebrews means when he instructs us to fix “our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross” (12:2). It’s what Paul encourages us to do by taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ (2 Corinthians 10:5). And it’s where he urges us to shift our gaze as we purpose to “fix our eyes on what is unseen, rather than what is seen” (2 Corinthians 4:18).

Maybe you or someone you know is in a “winter season” of life. Remember, even if the view right in front of your eyes is uncomely, the Lord comes to every season with something beautiful for you to behold: Himself. When you look to Jesus, He will guide you through every season of life and tenderly shift your gaze from what’s right before you to what’s above you.

“Lord, Help us shift our gaze from what is seen to what is unseen. Change the perspectives of our lives by reminding us to look to You.”

For His Glory,

Emily P. Meyer (www.emilypmeyer.com)
TRBC Women’s Life