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One of the amazing things about being human beings is that we have different ways of experiencing the world around us through our senses. Our God in whose image we are created even seems to experience us through senses. My devotions in this time are walking through reflections of how God connects us in our senses. This devotional I want to get into the most prevalent one – sight.

When we see God, we are changed as people. This might be a strange thing to say with the idea that to see God is to die (Exodus 33:20). Of course, that does not stop a number of people from having some kind of a face-to-face with some manifestation of the Divine (Abram, Jacob, Moses). Avoiding pointless debate about kinds of vision, clearly Moses saw God to the point of glowing the rest of his life and had to wear a veil because of the people’s fear (Exodus 34). Paul lost his vision in his encounter with Christ Jesus and had his whole world reworked (Acts 9). The Apostle Thomas, just before being sent out into the world with the Gospel, refused to believe unless he saw Jesus with his wounds and touched them (John 20). Isaiah 6 is a beautiful and powerful statement on seeing God as the prophet is commissioned to bear God’s word to the people. Another striking vision commission is the Apostle John’s in Revelation 1 with a picture of Jesus in the most dramatic array. Both Isaiah and John receive this divine vision before embarking on the greatest task of their lives.

Seeing goes beyond the eyes, also. In fact, this is where the real “seeing” takes place today. We see others all the time without truly seeing them as children of God, sisters and brothers in Christ, fellow human beings sharing God’s good creation. Matthew 25 is a wonderful passage for urging us to take seriously how we “see” each other and is a chapter that frames many mission agencies around the world. When we do ministry of love and compassion for others, especially the least, we do it unto Jesus, himself. Therefore, we should see others, especially the least, as Jesus, not with pity to feel sorry for the poor but with compassion to share the hardship some around us seem to truly bear. These are the people that the world might label the least valuable, but in the Kingdom of God, they may well be the greatest.

When we dare to see others as actually sharing in the presence of God, we will see differently. We will be much more likely to be godly change in the world, and we will be changed, too, in good and faithful ways. I believe we will also see God between us, and that is a welcome and blessed sight.

Rev. Dr. Peter Smith is the pastor for Farmville Presbyterian Church. He can be reached at pastorfpc@centurylink.net.