What Do You See?Prøve

DO YOU SEE WHAT GOD SEES? Two prisoners were in a prison, inside a cell that had only a small barred window. Both looked out the window daily, but one of them only saw the bars, while the other watched the stars on the other side. Two people may be looking at the same thing, but capture totally different realities. A person who lives with a negative vision, ready to focus on weaknesses, failures and flaws, will not be able to see the same as another who lives with expectation and is always ready to receive something good from God. In today's passage, God shows Jeremiah a picture and asks him, "What do you see?" Jeremiah replies, "I see an almond branch." He did not see with his eyes alone, but had a vision of what God was about to do. He did not focus on his condition, or on his excuses, or on the condition of the people of Israel, who at that time were living disconnected from God, but he saw beyond his own reality. When I traveled to Israel some years ago, I had an experience that impacted my life: I visited the Wailing Wall on a Friday night. That was the time, beginning on the Sabbath, when everyone approached the wall to pray. I could see children and elderly people, with the law in their hands, making an incredible and challenging sound of devotion. Then I approached one of the elders and asked him, "What are you praying for? He replied, "Everyone prays according to what they see." What do you see? The almond tree that Jeremiah saw is the first tree to bloom after winter, announcing a new season: spring. This tree is also called "the alarm clock". God used the vision of a tree to call Jeremiah and use it as an alarm clock in the midst of his people. God has called you to be the Church, a church that wakes up the generations, a church that announces a new season, a church that is bearing fruit with the new things that God is doing. In this season, do you see what God sees?