They Don't See It

I've been reading a few books this march break and one of them was a book called "Mister God, This is Anna". There are very few books that can totally grab my attention and drive me crazy until I finish it. This was one of those books. It is the story of a little girl named Anna who was a 6 year old theologian and philosopher. The depths of her discoveries were beautiful and enthralling. She could find anything and it would amaze her and teach her something new about Mister God. During one part of her life, these discoveries were too exciting to keep to herself so she would run to the nearest person and tell them to write it down for her. However, everyone she asked told her to go away, when her friend Fynn (who wrote the book) came up to her.

"I reckoned it was about time to dish out a few words of comfort. I levered myself off the steps and crossed the road to her. She pointed to a broken off stump of an iron railing. "I want somebody to write about that, but they don't see it. "
"Perhaps they are too busy", I suggested.
"No, it ain't. They don't see it They don't know what I mean."
This last reply was uttered with a kind of deep and inward sadness; it was a sentence I was to hear more and more. 'They don't see it. They don't see it."
..."Never mind," I said, "I'll write it down big for you." ...
"I don't want you to write down nuffink [sic]." She tried out a smile but it didn't work too well, and with a sniff she continued, "I know what I see and I know what you see, but some people don't see nuffink and - and -." She threw herself into my arms and sobbed. ...
Anna's misery was for others. They just could not see the beauty of that broken iron stump, the colors, the crystaline shapes; they could not see the possibilities there. Anna wanted them to join with her in this exciting new world but they could not imagine themselves to be so small that this jagged fracture could become a world of iron mountains, of iron plains with crystal trees. It was a new world to explore, a world of the imagination, a world where few people would or could follow her." (pg. 51-53)

Have you ever felt like that? That "they don't see it" feeling? Another book I was reading stars another person who felt the same way.

"The disciples came to him and asked, “Why do you speak to the people in parables?” He replied, “Because the knowledge of the secrets of the kingdom of heaven has been given to you, but not to them. Whoever has will be given more, and they will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what they have will be taken from them. This is why I speak to them in parables:
   “Though seeing, they do not see;
   though hearing, they do not hear or understand.
In them is fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah:
   “‘You will be ever hearing but never understanding;
   you will be ever seeing but never perceiving.
For this people’s heart has become calloused;
   they hardly hear with their ears,
   and they have closed their eyes.
Otherwise they might see with their eyes,
   hear with their ears,
   understand with their hearts
and turn, and I would heal them.’
But blessed are your eyes because they see, and your ears because they hear. For truly I tell you, many prophets and righteous people longed to see what you see but did not see it, and to hear what you hear but did not hear it." Matthew 13:10-17

Jesus had so many of those "they don't see it" moments.  Most of the time he's repeating himself to the disciples over and over because they just don't see it. 

Looking back on my own life, I can remember moments when I saw something so cool and so amazing - but nobody else saw the beauty in it. And I also remember moments when I'm sure God was saying to himself (assuming God talks to himself) "Oh, she's just not seeing it!"  Sometimes (oh let's be honest), most of the time, I completely miss something amazing that God is doing in my life or in his world because I'm worrying or over-analyzing. 

May our eyes be open to the beauty and awesomeness that God has in this world and even in our own lives .