Your opinion, your point of view, and what you see when you look out at the world, are unique aspects of who you are. Your view is colored by your own cognitive biases and perspectives built on years of shaping your experience of life. You and your neighbor may see the exact same scene, but only vaguely touch on points of agreement.
So, the idea here is that if we each bring our own unique spin to what we see, how does that help or hinder us from seeing God? For some, seeing is believing. If you don’t see God’s hand at work in your life, it may be because you aren’t sure He’s even there. You imagine if you could see Him, well, then, you’d believe in Him. For others of us, believing is seeing, and so the more we believe in God, the more we recognize His presence everywhere we go. What we see then, has a lot to do with the data we’ve collected through life.
Humans are temporary at best. We go from being an “I am” to an “I was” fairly quickly. We imagine our intellect and our opinions define reality. We may think we are on this planet by chance, brought here by biology, living for no real purpose at all, and then returning to the dust. If that’s true, then whether you live as a kind and loving person, or as an angry and jaded person, life is just a short ride and then it’s over. You are not equipped for eternity.
When God told Moses His name was “I Am Who I Am,” He was affirming He existed, and not only that, but He existed generations before Moses and He would exist generations after Moses. God can’t be a “was.” He has neither beginning nor end. You and I have both a beginning and an end. When we were born, God put a little part of Himself within us, in that place we call the soul, and He waits for us to discover He’s there. When we do, we begin to see more clearly. We realize we are not just some carbon life forms, but we are intentional, and special. We are more than we even imagine because God breathed His Spirit into us and proved His love for us through Jesus.
God sees you clearly. He sees your doubt, your intellectual rejection, your emotional uncertainty, and your great heart. He sends people to help you along the way, to strengthen you when you can’t stand a moment longer on your own, so you can see His hand at work in your life. The fact is you are so important to God, He will keep sending love and hope and possibility into your life until the day you breathe your last. He sees you as good and beautiful.
When you make the slightest effort to see Him more clearly, a door will open, a light will shine, and God’s Spirit will guide you from that moment on.
God sees everything you are. In His love for you, He wants you to see everything He is, and everything He can be to you.
Keep looking!