Getting New Eyes

For My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways My ways, says the Lord.
For as the Heavens are higher than the earth,
so are My ways higher than your ways and My thoughts than your thoughts.

Isaiah 55:8-9

I have never been much of an artist. When I took a beginner’s drawing class in college, my bottles were pretty uninspiring. I could never seem to get on paper what I saw on the table. Eighteen years later, I learned that there is more than one approach to drawing.

Now the brain is much too complex for me to explain, and there is still much even the experts don’t understand, but suffice it to say, each half of our brain handles incoming information differently. The left hemisphere analyzes, counts, marks time, plans step-by-step procedures, verbalizes, and makes rational statements based on logic. Using the right hemisphere, however, we are able to dream, imagine, understand metaphors, create new combinations of ideas, and use intuition; we can see how things exist in space and how parts go together to make up the whole.

Many of us who are not naturally artistic draw from a logical, planned-out mode and our pictures look flat and lifeless. Artists who paint and draw from the creative, intuitive right brain, on the other hand, pull you right into their pictures. It’s not so much about how they draw, but how they see.

In Mark 8:17-18, Jesus questions the disciples’ ability to see beyond the logical, obvious exterior. “Do you not yet discern or understand?…Having eyes, do you not see?”

If we look at the world around us through earth-bound, analytical vision, it looks pretty flat and bleak. We see the endless, mindless tasks and cycles in which most people exist. It can be very dreary, even depressing. But if we allow the Spirit to bring us in line with His vision–what a difference. Suddenly we see purpose and beauty and life.

I used to look at the snowdrifts in my flower beds and all I could think of was death; my beautiful flowers were all dead. But then the Spirit opened my eyes. Those flowers aren’t dead; they’re resting. They’re getting ready  to burst forth even bigger in the spring. And not only that, but they have thrown their seeds all around them to bring up new life.

What do you see? Are you walking in the reality of Heaven, or are you stuck in the realm of humanity? Just as Jesus heard the cries of a blind mean on the road to Jericho and restored his sight (Luke 18:35-43), so he will hear you. Just cry out. “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!”

Looking for more wonderful encouragement? Continue to soothe your soul with more inspiration Against All Odds

Learn more about gifted faith writer Amy Layne Litzelman