Scripture of the Day
"I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened..." -- Ephesians 1:18
Reflection
The theologian and preacher Fred Craddock told a story from his childhood about an elderly neighbor named Will. When young Fred asked Will about church, the old man described it in unforgettable terms -- golden doors, silver handles, five hundred voices in the choir, a ceiling blue as heaven with stars sprinkled throughout, and angels singing.
Fred eventually visited Will's church. It seated about sixty people in an unpainted board-frame building sagging in the middle, with handmade furniture and a handful of people fanning themselves with funeral home fans. He was bewildered. "Where in the world did Will get that?" he wondered.
It wasn't until Will's funeral -- held in that same little building -- that Fred understood. As the choir began to sing and the congregation joined in, Fred looked up. The ceiling was a majestic, deep blue and it felt like the stars were shining through the ceiling. And he realized: Will could see what he couldn't see.
Sometimes God disguises the good stuff, and you have to adjust your eyes -- and set down your expectations -- to see it.
A community shaped by prayer develops those eyes together. We help each other see what God is doing in the ordinary, the small, the unglamorous places where he is most faithfully at work.
Question for Personal Reflection
Are your expectations of what God should look like preventing you from seeing what God actually looks like?
Action Step
Look for one "disguised" gift from God in your life this week -- something ordinary that is, on closer inspection, extraordinary.
Prayer
Lord, adjust our eyes. Help us see your glory in the places we've been too distracted or too proud to look. Amen.
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