What Are You Staring At?

When I was a youth I had a younger brother who was confined to a wheelchair due to an inherited disease. This was at a time before the American Disabilities Act required handicap access to any place in the universe except the moon. It was also a time before chairlifts and vans were common. Our family's first wheelchair accessible van was a used cargo van with a homemade ramp which required two persons (a pusher and a puller) to get my brother up into the van. So it was relatively rare to see someone out and about in a wheelchair. During this time if you wanted to get into most buildings you had to navigate steps in a wheelchair. Thus it was unusual to see a handicapped person out in public trying to circumvent the barriers of curbs, steps, and non-automatic opening doors.

Whenever we were out in the public away from our small hometown, my brother was very conscious of the eyes following him around. It was obvious that my brother was the object of many sets of eyes following him wherever he went. It bugged him so much that sometimes he would confront a person with the phrase, "what are you staring at?" It really was useful in getting someone to quit staring at you.

But let's face it. We find it hard not to stare at something that is spectacular - whether it is good or beautiful, bad or ugly.

Within the soul of man are eyes that have the ability to behold both a physical realm and a spiritual realm. It is far easier to behold the physical realm because it is so easily seen. (It really takes no effort to see the physical.) The spiritual realm is not so easy to behold as it is for the most part invisible. I say for the most part because the miraculous can be seen and is simply the spiritual realm manifesting itself in the physical realm.

The Bible encourages us to fix our eyes on the unseen, spiritual realm. One of the valuable reasons for fixing our eyes on the spiritual realm rather than the physical realm is the fact that the realm we are most conscious of will be reflected in the way we live. To fix our eyes on Jesus will bring a result in our inner character being transformed into His image which will then have the positive effect on our outward thoughts and acts.

I am finding the more conscious I become of the unseen spiritual realm, the more this focus brings into sight the spectacular nature of our Lord Jesus. And the more spectacular He appears to us the more irresistible He becomes to us. We just have to stare more at Him because of His awesome goodness manifested in and through us.

So friends, let's all have a "stare fest". Let's stare at the unseen, spiritual world and become more conscious than ever of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Blessings