When you watch a movie in three d, it is likely that you will forget that you are sitting in a theater seat. You are drawn into the scene...and given just a little bit of consent on the part of your imagination, you may find yourself becoming "one" with the characters and activities in the movie. Take off the glasses and the images are blurred, faulty, and out of focus. Put the glasses back on again, and the "reality" of what the moviemaker wants to present is communicated clearly!
Now think about the gift given to us which helps us see things more clearly according to what God knows is possible...the lens placed over your human eyes when you pray. Prayer is a conversation that places all of that you see or think or consider under a God lens. Things which are illusory are filtered out. Things that are real (according to God's Truth) are brought into relief.
There is always more going on than what meets the eye.
Take a few moments to gaze at this image:
There are many things going on....all at once. How many do you see?
In truth, every moment we experience has an infinite number of things going on all at once. Some things are real...other things are nothing other than the perceptions emerging from illusion and deceptive mental activity.
There are moments that break through the surface of what we see that give us glimpses of what is REAL. Those moments are the ones when time seems to stand still. They can be moments of solitude when beauty bursts into our view...beauty that may be expansive, like a sunrise...or beauty that is miniscule, like a drop of dew on a blade of grass. Reality appears also in moments of human community when we exchange a word or glance that is somehow so full of love and understanding that we know that it is not of our own making -- it is clearly a moment of grace...given by God to draw us closer to each other in God.
One of my favorite movies is "A Beautiful Mind" (2001)...the story of John Nash, (portrayed by Russell Crowe)the Nobel Prize winning mathemetician who suffered from extreme schizophrenia. In a climactic scene the power of the mental illness threatens to consume John and obliterate his grip on reality. His marriage is on the edge of collapse. John's wife, Alicia (played by Jennifer Connelly)kneels before him and draws his attention to what is "real". She proclaims her hope that something "extraordinary" can happen. She looks deeply into his eyes...touches his cheek and places John's hand upon her heart...and she reminds him "This...is real!" For just a moment the confusion and chaos of the schizophrenia is halted, and the scene is one of solid and profound PEACE.
When we notice a breaking through of God's reality, extraordinary things are revealed. They don't necessarily make sense...we can't choreograph their appearance. But these moments are given to us to remind us of the underlying flow of infinite love and purpose that can gather our broken lives together into wholeness.
Ephesians 1:5-10
He destined us for adoption as his children through Jesus Christ, according to the good pleasure of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace that he freely bestowed on us in the Beloved. In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace that he lavished on us. With all wisdom and insight he has made known to us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure that he set forth in Christ, as a plan for the fullness of time, to gather up all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth.
This is a plan that is intact and which underlies every day. Where do you see it? Who is helping you pause in the midst of life's chaos and busy-ness. Who is drawing your attention to what is REAL?
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