Think back to your last eye exam. What did you do when you got to that row of letters you could not see? Did you make up your own letters? Did you spit out your best guesses? It is frustrating to notice how much sooner you had to start guessing. It is a reminder that our bodies are slowly (or quickly) wearing down. Without the help of my glasses there is an awful lot I could not possibly see.

God reminds us that there is even more that we cannot see. We cannot yet see the certainties that we have not yet received. We cannot see our hope of heaven. If we could see it, it would not be our hope. It would be reality. That trips us up from time to time. We focus on what we can see. We look at the world around us and quite often what we see is difficulty, heartache, and suffering. Satan would have us believe that is evidence that Jesus is not ruling in his heaven and God doesn’t love us.

This week God reminds us that suffering is a part of our life so that we will take our eyes off what we can see and focus on what we cannot see. He wants us to focus on the future glory that will be revealed. We know it is a certainty because of Jesus’ life and death in our place. The more our eyes focus on this certainty not yet received, the more we will wait patiently for it to be revealed.

Romans 8:22-25

We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what he already has? But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently.