Read the transcript from today's video devotional.
When I read this verse, something comes to mind for me that might resonate with some of you, but maybe others will just be learning about it now. When I was a kid, there was something called Highlights magazine. I don't know if that brings up anything for anyone, but for me, the nostalgia is strong and I have favorable memories. It's mainly because what this verse is talking about was represented in a very small and minuscule way in something in this magazine.
Hidden Pictures
It was a section called Hidden Pictures. You turned to the page and when you look at the picture, you see this big piece of art that's filling up the whole page. Within that picture, there are all these other little pictures that are woven into the greater piece of art. There's a list on the side of all of these items. Your job is to look at this picture, this piece of art, and find the hidden pictures that are inside.
I used to love to grab my pen and go through that list and try to find with keen eye in the middle of this greater picture where the other hidden pictures were. Well, that comes to mind for me because I believe what we're seeing here on the pages of Isaiah is calling us to this work here on earth: to seek where we can see the Lord in the middle of our regular life. Where are the hidden pictures of God's hand of kindness? Where are the hidden pictures of God's grace, His goodness, His forgiveness? Where can we see God? Maybe at first glance, we don't see Him right away.
Finding God in Hard Seasons
For some of us, this feels like a very foreign prospect, because we might be in a season where it feels like I'm looking at this picture of life, I'm looking at this artistic work that's unfolding, and I can't see how there can be any evidence of God in the middle of any of it, because it's just hard right now. I feel like at every turn there is disappointment and sadness, frustration. This is something that is real to the plight of the human being on earth.
There are others of us who are going, man, I can't help but see at every turn all the ways that God is at work in the middle of my story. Things are good. I'm thriving, I feel hopeful. The cool thing is, for each one of us on the journey, the difficulty of finding God at work and the abundant nature of seeing God at work intersect with one another.
Seeking God in Community
Do you know why? Because God actually designed our pursuance of Him not to be individual, but communal in nature. The reader in the first century of the Scriptures, understanding who Jesus was and what it meant to know Him and reading these letters about His life—the people would have known it wasn't just for them by themselves to figure out where they could see God at work. It was to understand what it meant to know God for themselves relative to the community.
The reason that was important is exactly how I just lined it out. There were times where people needed the encouragement of the ones who were seeing God everywhere, when they felt like He was invisible. There was the calibration for people who felt like they could do no wrong and everything was all good—but to remember there was pain and need and brokenness in life. They served one another in community as they sought to see the hidden pictures of God in the world.
Increase Your Focus
I don't know which side you find yourself on today, but let's increase our focus. Let's set our lenses to try to find God at work in the hidden pictures right here in our lives on earth.
