New Reminders: Visibility
by Ardith Hoff
Something that is visible is something we can see. Something invisible cannot be seen. How we make the invisible visible, is by showing evidence that it exists. We tend to live by the mantra that “Seeing is believing.” And it is hard for us to visualize anything we have never seen. Yet we are capable of believing that just because we can’t see something, does not mean it does not exist. We cannot see the air we breathe, yet we know that it is there, and we keep breathing. We can’t see a chair in the dark, yet stubbing our toe on it, as we walk to find the light switch, proves that it is there.
We had a pastor who used to ask, “Where have you seen God at work in your lives this week” and we would think about all the blessing we encountered that week. Now that I think of it, I think the question should have been, “How have you made God visible in your world this week?” We do not see God. We can only infer His presence. We can, however, see things that we wish God would fix in the world and we can pray that he does, yet in reality, he expects us to do what we can to fix them. We have to remember that “Christ has no body on earth but yours, no hands but yours, no feet but yours. Yours are the eyes through which Christ's compassion for the world is to look out; yours are the feet with which He is to go about doing good; and yours are the hands with which He is to bless us now." Saint Theresa of Avella.
The quote is based on such verses such as: Ephesians 2:10 that informs us “We are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.” “Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it.” I Corinthians 12:27 and “I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing." John 15:5
We don’t have to wait for God to step in, He has given us not only permission, but instructions that it is up to us to carry out His work on Earth. It is up to us to make Him visible in the world. He has promised to enable and equip us to do the work, but he does not do the work for us. We are His foot soldiers, His cooks and bottle washers, His bakers and barbers and His homemakers.