Vision

I have a section of curbside yard that I have wanted, for years, to see transformed into something special to look at. These often-arid strips are actually city property, but homeowners are expected to care for what grows there. I had assorted grasses, none of which thrived, and weeds. That's why these sections are frequently called hell strips; they are "impossible." This was the year to do something about the situation. It was going to take heavy-duty work, more than I am able to do: rototilling, leveling, installing edging, digging holes for the plants, laying weed barrier, covering the surface with a couple tons of pebbles and two large rocks. I called in a crew from the garden center.

When the landscape planner came to arrange the work, I told him I wanted the area to be bright and beautiful but there had to be tough plants that could tolerate some "neglect." He looked it over. "Well, I see yarrow here," he said. "About three brown-eyed Susans here, some Stella de Oro daylilies—I really like those—and probably over there an Autumn Joy sedum," and so on. I am not gifted with the insight to see what an area will look like when the plants are mature and blooming. But this experienced designer said several times, "I can see . . ." He had a vision of what could be.

God's people need vision—not necessarily visions of a supernatural sense—but vision that can see what is not yet visible! In the spiritual realm, the things that have validity are those which are unseen by our human eyes. "We do not look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal." (II Corinthians 4:18) God lives in the Eternal Present, and He speaks of those things which do not "exist" (in our temporal scheme of things) as though they did. (See Romans 4:17)

Like "father" Abraham, we need the trust in God that sees past the impossible to what can be and what, in God's eyes, already is.

MaryMartha

Scripture taken from the New King James Version. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Art from http://www.sxc.hu/