I do not cease to give thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers, that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you a spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him, having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, … -- Ephesians 1:16-18
I have to be brief today, but I want to focus on a phrase
that has made me smile through many years:
having the eyes of your hearts enlightened.
The Spirit of God comes and opens, as it were, a new vista
for us. Jesus opened blinded eyes that
men might clearly see the physical world.
The Holy Ghost enables us to see clearly the spiritual world and those
things which are eternal, never passing away.
Jesus touched one blind man who said that he saw “men as
trees walking”. I wonder if this is not
my state sometimes. I perceive spiritual
truth but dimly. It does not come into
sharp focus, and thus it is easy to dismiss as my over-active imagination. Those trees really can’t be moving
around. I must be mistaken, and I am,
for they are not trees, but they are walking.
As we mentioned yesterday, everything is as the saints, the
sages, and the Word say it is. The truth
stands at our shoulder while we look off to the horizon, waiting for it to come
over the hill. MacDonald told us: All
mirrors are magic mirrors.
Our “glorious inheritance” is not limited to where we go and
what we receive when this physical body dies.
The Promised Land is ours now, and, having entered by faith, we will see.
6 comments:
"Jesus touched one blind man who said that he saw “men as trees walking”. I wonder if this is not my state sometimes."
This is fascinating ironic. I've never seen this passage before.
Plus, was this man seeing the transcendant realm? And Jesus had to dial it back some?
Men as trees walking recalls "roots aloft" for some reason.
Not to mention, in The War, we have a sort of camouflage coat on soldiers that makes them part of the treescape.
That could be, after all He spit on the man's eyes. Too much power. I hadn't thought about it that way, but he could have been too "far-sighted" in another dimension.
Mark 8:23-25
And he took the blind man by the hand and led him out of the village, and when he had spit on his eyes and laid his hands on him, he asked him, “Do you see anything?” And he looked up and said, “I see men, but they look like trees, walking.” Then Jesus laid his hands on his eyes again; and he opened his eyes, his sight was restored, and he saw everything clearly.
"Eyes of your heart" ...
That is an aye catching phrase. Since it's the Holy Spirit who enables our hearts to see, I wonder if our hearts slso have ears to hear?
So that our hearts see, hear and feel spiritual truths.
Perhaps even glimpses of the spiritual cosmos may be seen n' heard.
This passage is very provocative, Mush. Especially: "Can you see anything?" (as is shown in the NRSV translation). Either way, this seems to be another divine-human plea as UF calls them, as opposed to say a direct order. It's asked of the blind-man, but when we read it, He asks us as well.
Btw, you seem to have a knack for finding what I seem to have slept through. I had to have read this but... where was I?
From the perspective of the blind-man -- what he saw the first time -- recalls the transfiguration.
There's more here than meets the eye...
I agree. Yes, it's the record of a healing, but, as always, the Spirit is showing us something beyond.
With regard to the transfiguration, now that you mention, it says the three disciples afterward saw no man but Jesus only. Perhaps the blind man was the same way. He saw Jesus and everyone else by comparison was like a tree -- unaware.
You are giving me a lot to ponder.
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