Glimpses

As I work in this vocation, I have the opportunity to catch glimpses of the lives of others as they navigate day to day. I get to see family dynamics in real time. I have the privilege of sharing joys and sorrows with others. I can interact with people on a level that is not often broached in ordinary life and living. I have a couple of observations regarding these “glimpses” into the lives of others.
First, I marvel at the resilience and toughness of the human creation. Even with all that this fallen creation can throw at the human race, I see marvelous adaptation, powerful reaction, and creative intervention. The human spirit was created to embrace life and be renewed by hope. We encourage and are encouraged. We love and are loved. We value and are valued. We cherish and are cherished. We give hope and are given hope. We encounter trial and we persevere. We are knocked down, and we get back up.
Second, I cannot help but see the hand of someone greater than we are intervening in the affairs and lives of humankind. Whether that hand is healing, protecting, encouraging, loving, arranging, ordering, or all of the above, the hand of who I call Jehovah God is apparent to anyone who has eyes and ears attuned to things beyond the immediate here, now, and present. One would have to be intentionally discounting the indicators and tossing away the signs to not pick up on these, perhaps the most compelling evidences for the existence of a Creator and God.
I am reminded of the words of the great apostle Paul. He tells the Corinthians in one of his letters what he believes and experiences as he continues his God-given work.
“We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not despairing; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed…knowing that He who raised the Lord Jesus will raise us also with Jesus and will present us with you…Therefore we do not lose heart, but though our outer man is decaying, yet our inner man is being renewed day by day. For momentary, light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison, while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal.”