Do you see?

The drive up the mountain this morning brought a smile to my soul as the sun’s rays danced through the trees and a canopy of autumn colors filled my senses with every thrust of exuberant orange, red, and yellow. This multi-colored coat embraced me around every curve, returned to me her eager expression. Rolling up the mountain was an Eden’s delight. The leaves are at peak and all I could say about such an onset was, “Thank you, God, for allowing me to see!”

To simply love God with all our heart, mind, soul, and strength is what He commands, but to see with the same opens us to God Himself. And to see Him clearly and with clarity is to know something about Him, His promise, and His love.

The Psalmist writes in Psalm 91, “O you who dwell in the shelter of the Most High and abide in the protection of Shaddai—I say of the Lord, my refuge and stronghold, my God in whom I trust, that He will save you from the fowler’s trap, from the destructive plague. He will cover you with His pinions; you will find refuge under His wings; His fidelity is an encircling shield.”

Too often we pin outcomes to God. We think our wants and desires are His to affect, are His effect. And when the inevitable tragedy and despair come, and faith wanes, spirals toward self-pity, we look to God and say, “Why?” In those times, we forget the Psalmist’s meaning, that God comforts those who trust Him, even without seeing Him during those times. Yes, He also yearns to call closer to Him those who do not see. Should we offer to trust God or not on our terms?

Man cannot live outside creation though he is allowed to contemplate it, because he must then contemplate himself considering he is also creation. Free will does not exempt the violinist from the orchestra or allow him to be in the audience as he plays. Every well-played or mis-played note belongs to him. He must keep time and rhythm with the conductor, as must the orchestra, for the score to achieve its intention.

Perhaps we pin God to our outcome. Maybe there is a thought suggesting the outcome we seek or the outcome we experience is the only result to consider. If we live with such a thought, God cannot be a part of it, though He may enter the fray to call us toward the outcome He desires, something He had in mind and we did not.

How should we know God ever loves us but for the free will He gave us, the very power to reject Him? How should we ever love Him but to go to Him freely of our will?

This was my drive up the mountain, greeting God through creation, seeing what He intended me to see, a Hope and not a hope, an assurance of whose shelter I lived.

Do you see?

“Those who have ears to hear, let them hear” (Matthew 11:15, NKJV).