Monday Morning Devotion-August 30, 2021
Seeing the Invisible
*Based on the devotion---"Invisibility" ---October 14, 2013
°but those who wait on the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint.
Isaiah 40:31
Have you ever felt invisible? No, I'm not talking about not being able to be seen by others. I'm referring to being ignored. You are there in flesh and blood, but no one is paying attention to you. A person can be described as invisible if others refuse to see him or overlook him.
Maybe there are times when you wish you were invisible. Maybe you are attracting un-wanted attention. You'd just as soon no one noticed you at all. Could be a mistake you've made. Possibly a bad mood you are in°yes, we all have those from time to time.
There are times when it would be nice to be invisible and there are other times when being treated as invisible is not a good thing.
Invisibility is the state of an object that cannot be seen. Of course, this is common in fantasy or science fiction books and movies. Harry Potter's tales drew heavily at times on invisibility.
According to Wikipedia invisibility can be achieved in the real world: "Since objects can be seen by light in the visible spectrum from a source reflecting off their surfaces and hitting the viewer's eye, the most natural for of invisibility (whether real or fictional) is an object that neither reflects nor absorbs light (that is, it allows light to pass through it.) This is known as transparency and is seen in many naturally occurring materials (although no naturally occurring material is 100% transparent).
That's interesting because more and more I hear folks, especially politicians, talking about becoming transparent. They are intending to indicate that you can see inside what they are doing. Nothing is hidden. By becoming transparent they can prove that their motives are entirely above board and honest.
If transparency allows light to pass on through and there is nothing there to block it°uh what is this transparency allowing us to see. Seems like nothing because nothing is there in the first place.
The OT prophet Isaiah sought to comfort his people by reminding them that they were not invisible. Because of the captivity and hard times, they were feeling like they were in that situation we mentioned earlier. They were there and visible, but they felt like they were invisible to God. Felt that He was ignoring them.
Looking back at the situation that Isaiah was faced with during those times the people believed that help from deities was only available within local boundaries. If you were outside of those areas, you were out of luck. The people of Judah were on the verge of deportation so many of them, even the most pious Jews, might have been concerned that Yahweh's protection might not extend to foreign lands. So, Isaiah wanted to emphasize God's enormous power over creation. Isaiah stressed that their God is the Creator and Sustainer, so His covenant people could be assured of His protective care for them no matter where they were.
It is nice to know we are not invisible to God, no matter how difficult times may be. He cares about us and will never ignore us. That's why Isaiah tells us to wait on the Lord. Wait until we know he is directing us. And then°I like this°He will renew our strength. We will mount up with wings like eagles. We will run and not be weary and walk and not be faint."
As you get older the importance of that last part will take on more meaning. When you are young you are constantly on the go and it takes a lot to tire you out physically. Even mentally, you rebound quickly from setbacks because youth naturally provides a sense of confidence in achieving things. There is an air of optimism that is easily drawn on.
At an older age a person tires more easily, this varies among folks depending on what kind of physical conditioning they have done and what kinds of hard knocks life has dealt them. Some people just have harder lives than others.
But the prospect of soaring above our problems like eagles is awesome. We can do that when we wait on and put our trust in the Lord. Well, we are not physically going to be soaring through the air, unless we are on an airplane, but you get the picture. Our spirits are lifted. We feel confident, more in control because we have actually surrendered control to the One who is in control.
And to walk and not grow weary and run and not grow faint°. that is without regard to the weather. Well, that is something. Here again. The things that tire us out that cause us to lose hope, to feel discouraged and unable to continue will seem minor and trivial because we have waited on the Lord. We have executed that most difficult of strategies. Patience!
The book and screenplay I have been working on is called: Seeing the Invisible, Doing the Impossible. It is based on a true story and the title comes from a quote by a women's basketball coach who has a leading role in the story. She inherited a downtrodden team that had been beaten down by so many defeats and had such little success they were, like the people of Judah. They felt like they were invisible. There was no escaping their predicament.
But as the Coach began to lay out a strategy for success, she told them they had to see the invisible, to do the impossible. OK, coach, how do we do that? If something is invisible, it can't be seen.
She was telling them they had to see in their minds how this success was going to look when they had faith, patience, believed, worked hard, and bonded together as a team. Despite all the tragedy and misfortune that threatened that vision, they were able to see, in their mind's eye the invisible and achieve what had felt impossible.
Invisibility can be a good thing. Trust the Lord and believe that the invisible will be made visible in a dramatic and rewarding way.
Monday Prayer: Thank you Lord for the way you transform the power of invisibility into the power of visibility. Amen!