I Want to be Ready

              The two tall shining ones were ushering their newbies into the New Land. Ayzair’s charge, Sam, kept chattering away, overjoyed. 

“Hey, thanks for helping me…when do I get to see Jesus? Oh, wow! Look at the size of those trees! Are those apples? Oh, my gosh, can I eat one?”

“Of course,” said his giant helper. Sam jumped maybe 20 feet in the air and landed holding an apple the size of a grapefruit. “Oh, my gosh – that’s the best apple I’ve ever tasted,” he said, mouth full and chin dripping juice.

Invisible?

What is “invisible” anyway? If an object doesn’t reflect light into our eyes in the “visible spectrum,” we don’t see it. Some creatures can see what we can’t. For example, bees can “see” into the infrared spectrum. Or think of the interstellar hunters in the Predator movies. They saw in a different spectrum than their prey.

Our sight is pretty limited, isn’t it? Think of all the important things that we know are there, but which we do not see with physical sight. Love, hope, patriotism. Russia, dust mites, satellites. Deep sea creatures, the internet, hydrogen gas.

From the New Testament’s perspective, the spiritual realm is more real and lasting than the realm of physical sight. But people only see into that realm when God allows it.

Right now you and I could be in the presence of angels and demons and be unaware of them. We could be in the presence of Almighty God, and not give Him another thought. Because we cannot see Him.

Which brings me to one of the reasons I admire Jesus so much.

• He is the image of the invisible God (Colossians 1:15a, ESV).
• No one has ever seen God; the only God, who is at the Father’s side, he has made him known (John 1:18, ESV). 
•  He is the radiance of the glory of God, and the exact imprint of his nature… (Hebrews 1:3a, ESV).

God has had mercy upon our blindness, and shown us Jesus. When we see Him in the pages of Scripture, when our spiritual blindness is healed to see Him at work in our lives, we are seeing God. The One who used to be invisible to us.

Headaches and Angels

Some years ago we thought my wife had a brain tumor. She’d had bad headaches for a while, but they were getting worse. Each time we saw the doctor, he seemed more concerned. He was the one who used the words “brain tumor” for the first time, as he scheduled Dionne for an MRI.

Then we were really worried. The idea that she might have brain cancer was overwhelming to both of us. It was a little over a week till the MRI, and we had some very tough days as we waited for what the brain scan would reveal.

And yet we never said a word to our church. At a time when we most needed prayer and encouragement and support, we didn't even ask for help. I admitted our fears only to my long-time friend and accountability partner, Mark. The day of the MRI, he met us at the hospital, prayed with us, and sat with me while Dionne was undergoing the test. I'll always be grateful that he was there.

Thankfully Dionne didn’t have a tumor, and her headaches stopped. But as I look back I realize that not asking for help from our church family was both unnecessary and prideful.

Many of us find it easy to serve, but difficult to let others serve us. It takes true humility to do both.