A call to exercise spiritual perception

There is little in our human experience that seems more impressive than what we see—in our own lives, in the news or our social media feeds, and in our interactions with others. The pictures the world presents include war, disease, poverty, racial tensions, fraught relationships, and personal tragedies, right alongside things we consider to be good. It is easy to accept all these images as real and worthy of our attention and concern. 

The Scriptures, however, encourage a second look to perceive what’s really present where these dark images seem so real. When the children of Israel, for instance, appeared to be cornered by the Egyptian army and facing almost certain destruction, Moses commanded a change of view, saying, “Fear ye not, stand still, and see the salvation of the Lord, which he will shew to you to-day” (Exodus 14:13). A psalm implores, “Open thou mine eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of thy law (Psalms 119:18). Christ Jesus declared that he was come “that they which see not might see” (John 9:39). And when the Apostle Paul was converted from a persecutor of Christians to an ambassador of Christ, “there fell from his eyes as it had been scales” and he was healed of a sudden blindness (Acts 9:18). These and many other passages in the Bible highlight the contrast between the commonly accepted view of everything as material on the one hand, and spiritual perception, or the apprehension of God, Spirit, and His perfect, spiritual creation, on the other. 

God, infinite good, is the only creative power and the singular source of our being, which is therefore spiritual, not material. So, to behold something spiritually is to perceive the harmony of this divine Truth as a present fact, where before the observer had seen only a limited, material picture.