Ed and Patsy now live in Athens, Alabama and are members at the Pepper Road church. As administrator of this blog, he enjoys sharing thoughts about spiritual maters. Not only his thoughts but good articles from other authors. He is also thankful to have been able to preach the unsearchable riches of Christ for over sixty years.
One may think that he is seeing the wind blowing – but strictly speaking this is impossible. He can only see the effects of the blowing wind. Wind itself, whether still or blowing, is invisible.
Luke tells us, in Acts 11:22-23, that when Barnabas came to Antioch that he saw the grace of God. Like the wind and similar invisible things, Barnabas did not literally see grace – he saw the effects of God’s grace upon the brethren at Antioch. Put grace under a microscope and see what it looks like – nothing! But, like wind, one can often and easily see the effects of it.
Our faith, no mater how strong or weak, cannot be seen literally. It too, cannot be examined by microscope or telescope. But one can see the effects of faith in our lives. In Mark 2:5, it is said that Jesus saw the faith of those who had brought the paralytic to him for healing. In what sense did he see their faith (one cannot literary see faith)? He saw the expression of their faith in their going to the trouble of letting them down through the roof to get to Him.
Likewise, one cannot see God by looking at Him through a microscope, a telescope, or naked eye. He is truly the “invisible God.” (Col. 1:15; 1 Tim. 1:17). But we see the effects of God all around us – the Bible we read, the heavens and earth and all things therein that we can see with the naked eye, the microscope and telescope.
So, if we want to see God’s grace, it will have to be through observing what that grace does. If people are to see our faith, it will have to be through seeing what our faith does. If we want to see God, in any sense this side of heaven, it will have to be through seeing what God does or has done – we see his existence and some of his nature by seeing his creation. A part of that creation is his Book that also tells things about his creation and nature and much more that we cannot learn by studying the rest of his creation – his purpose in creating man and his will for him on earth, man’s departure from God and his scheme of redemption, the destiny of all men, and more.
Let us all stand in awe of all the awesome effects produced by that which we cannot literally see.