Evidence is always clear when you are openly willing and able to see. If you are not ready and open then what happens is always chance, happenstance, or just life. The challenge conversations often have is one or both parties’ abilities to experience the evidence in all its meaning.
Examples are many. Someone consciously gives you, as they did to me recently, a gift of friendship and caring. Do you see it? Can you dare accept it on face value? Is there any link between their action and God’s compassionate interest in your life? Frankly I missed the point initially. I was tired, sick, and half asleep. I not only didn’t see the compassion I was slightly annoyed that I was being interrupted!
I am watching an unfolding story where one person, new to the job and all the responsibilities that goes with it, is expressing compassion and caring as a manager. The evidence should be plain for all to see, examine, and celebrate. A corporate citizen and manager is actively living the ideals the company speaks so often about! Yet, for the most part everyone involved is blind to what is going on. The various characters seem caught up in the transaction, personal benefits to be gained from, or the hassle of dealing with the issues that are fresh, present, and painful on the table. The evidence is there without the willingness and ability to see anything.
In a story of yesterday God gave the people evidence of his engagement in day to day living. The physical proof only became clear when the clean-up was complete. John records the following:
“They went to work and filled twelve large baskets with leftovers from the five barley loaves. The people realized that God was at work among them in what Jesus had just done. They said, ‘This is the Prophet for sure, God's Prophet right here in Galilee!’” (John 6.13, 14)
Take time today; look with open and willing eyes. God is at work in your life and mine. Knowing, really knowing this can make a difference.
