Invisible to the eye
This quote has been precious to me for a long time. I did not come to it as a pretty saying. That is a story for another telling.
I spent many years looking at what was in front of me, what I could see. A circumstance. An alternative. A woman. I told myself stories about the road ahead until they sounded true. Until they sounded the way I wanted them to be. The Lord was weighing things I was not looking at.
All the ways of a man are pure in his own eyes, but the Lord weighs the spirit.1
I used to think if I changed what was in front of me, the rest would follow. It did not. I could see the next opportunity, the next city, the next achievement. I could not see what I was actually serving.
It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye.3
I do not think Saint-Exupéry2 was writing a proverb for Christians. I think he was telling the truth about how we are made. True sight is a gift. To simply see is not enough. The things that last do not announce themselves. They have to be intentionally, willfully observed and honored. They are easy to overlook and tragic to miss.
I am still learning to see rightly.
