“Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God”
Matthew 5:1-12(NRSV)

Thought:

Watching for God. Have you ever just stopped to watch for God? Maybe you are at a place in your journey with Christ that you have the innate ability to see God everywhere. Then, on the other hand, maybe you watch, but can't seem to see anything. Why is it that some can see and others just can't? What kind of cruel joke is that?

Hear the Good News, there is no real "trick" to seeing God. The problem isn't so much in the seeing God, as it is in focusing on the "not God". Driving into town we see the unpleasant folks weaving in an out of traffic, we hear the shouts of the angry and the murmuring whispers of dissention. We even find our selves laughing at cruelty as it is dressed in the costume of dark humor. This is what we see when we can't see God, this is where our "trained eye" goes. Maybe, to see God, all we have to do is, well, see God. It may be as simple as stopping for a moment and simply watch a leaf. What would you see? Life? Color? Maybe the wind causes the leaf to move, or even fall to the ground. Your looking at the leaf and life for so long, you miss the trash, the junk. Hey, it's a start. Then, out of the corner of your eye, you might begin to catch more life gliding on that same breeze as it searches for only it knows what. You see, it is all about recognition. Recognizing God in the midst of humanity, should be much more simpler than we tend to make it. The hardest part is the start.

This past weekend, we took Casey, for her birthday, to Schlitterbahn on Galveston Island. I need to share with you what I saw there. I saw God there. It was in the laughter of children, it was in the fellowship of a youth group on a mystery trip and it was in the hope of The Sunshine Kids. And here is an interesting thing that happened on the way back. I don't really remember the traffic. Maybe seeing so much God changed my focus altogether.

There will always be those marvelous paintings of Michelangelo and Rembrandt, but if you really want to see God, just look for Him instead of everything else. He's there.

Prayer: