I SPY

I wonder if God doesn’t play I Spy with us.

Remember the game, I SPY? I spy with my little eye… and someone gives a clue of something they’re looking at . The game is to see if, with the clue, you can figure out what they see. The goal, of course, is to stump you.

To help us overcome our human limitations of time and space, I wonder if He doesn’t provide us with small clues in each day to point us to something He sees that we would otherwise miss.

I Corinthians 13:12 (NIV) says,
For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.

Matthew Henry offers, “What narrow views, what confused notions of things, have children when compared with grown men!”

Currently, I have a very confused child –  a child who can’t see as the grown people in her life see, that what she is doing is dangerous and life-threatening, and walking this out with her is my job as her mom and, except for her dad, no one else.

Life is pretty dark and mysterious right now. Not just for her but also for the grown-ups that love her. I can’t adequately describe the distortion I see lived in front of me nor the pit in my stomach at the thought of what the future will look like if nothing changes.

But I begin to think, God, have you hidden small things that, if I would be willing to play I Spy with you, might be able to show me a bigger view?

 

I Spy Round 1

Recently I thought to call a faithful friend, someone who has known me since my first years at the Naval Academy. She was thrilled to hear from me as she had been impressed to pray for me and, recalling the gift of our friendship, she ended the call with this encouragement..

“Mary, I remember what you said to me back when you were getting ready to undergo radioactive iodine treatment for your cancer in 1997. (At the time I had six children 10 years and under).

“You do. Well, tell me because I don’t remember what I said…”

“Well, you were getting ready for treatment, knowing you ’d have to be in the hospital, isolated from the six kids and Gary for an undetermined number of days, and you said, ‘’I’m really looking forward to my special, time-alone retreat.’ That is really how you always look at things Mary.

It’s good to remember the times when you had courage. Makes you think you can do it again. Sometimes your friends have to remind you of your own stories.

 

I Spy Round 2

Today, as I was bringing this child to an emergency doctor-visit, I was signing into the office and answering the questions of the receptionist. After verifying the necessary information of address and phone, I started to leave the counter. She stopped me by saying, “You know, in all my years of asking those questions, you are the only person that has ever said, “ I will be glad to. You made my day. I just thought you’d like to know.”

Even when my own life is full of discouragement I can go beyond myself and encourage others.

In less than 12 hours God had given me two little interactions that, in light of all the other difficult, jumbled, and confusing events that were happening, gave me some clues into how God sees things, and I got to see the view, too.

Matthew Henry concludes,

Thus shall we think of our most valued gifts of this world, when we come to heaven. All things are dark and confused now, compared with what they will be hereafter. They can only be seen as by the reflection in a mirror, or in the description of a riddle (or in a clue in an I spy game); but hereafter our knowledge will be free from all obscurity and error. It is the light of heaven only, that will remove all clouds and darkness that hide the face of God from us.

Maybe I’m not wanting to see what God sees as much as I’m wanting to see God Himself. That is the win in the I Spy game.