I once had a teacher give me a good lesson on perspective. I had to close my eyes, and when I opened them again, she had placed a painting up close to my face. All I could really see were splotches and blobs of color. Nothing made much sense.
She pulled the painting back just a few inches and asked me what I saw. Again, it was mostly just colors with very little detail. I told her I saw green and blue and a bit of black, maybe brown. I couldn’t make out a reasonable picture; none of it made sense.
She stepped back a bit farther, and now the painting was clearer. I could make out a lake and trees. Still farther, and I found the picture widening and becoming clearer. It was a landscape, which included a cabin by the lake, and behind it were mountains and a fading sun.
The object of the lesson was to teach us about expanding our vision to take in more than what was directly in front of us. She talked of going beyond the picture, to imagine our classroom and how someone looking in from the outside would see it. Children gathered around a table. One child stood at the front of the room. The teacher held up a painting. She challenged us to keep backing up.
Take it out of the building and imagine someone with the ability to see through walls. He would see the building and the landscape around it, but would also see the room, the children, the teacher, and the painting.
We kept going, imagining our town from overhead, our state, and then our country; then the world, and finally, the entire solar system.
I remembered that object lesson because the visual was so strong. I thought a great deal about how I often see nothing more than the blotches of color in front of me. I think I know what I’m looking at; I think I have a clear picture.
Then something comes into the scene to pull me back just a bit, and suddenly I realize there is more to the situation than I thought. The eyes of your heart can look at things the same way.
At first we see God through a glass darkly. We see the Word and try to understand and comprehend our little world through God’s eyes. We see the blotches and the colors—sometimes we are so close to the canvas that all we see are tiny pixels of color—so small we can’t even define their hue.
In Ephesians 1:18, Paul states his hope that the eyes of your heart be enlightened that you may know the hope to which God has called you. I have that same hope for you, which is why I’ve written this book. All around us, God is speaking in pictures that are vivid and powerful. Sometimes we catch a glimpse, and sometimes we don’t. The sad thing is, often we don’t even realize that we can’t see what God intends for us to see.
When my daughter Julie first started school, we had no idea she might have a vision problem. It wasn’t until she was tested that we learned she had astigmatisms in each eye. I felt horrible. I didn’t realize my own child was struggling to see. To her, the vision she had seemed normal. She had always seen things with those eyes—those defective eyes. She thought she had a clear picture. I thought she had a clear picture.
Maybe you think you have a clear picture of what God is trying to show you. And maybe you really do. But there’s also the possibility that you’re still standing with the canvas only inches away from your eyes, and God wants to show you a bigger, clearer picture.
I’ll never forget when Julie got her first pair of glasses. She put them on and stood amazed at the way they changed her world. I was delighted that things came into better focus for her, but my heart nearly broke later that night when we were outside. Looking up at the sky, I heard Julie gasp.
“Oh,” she said in complete delight, “the stars! I didn’t know you could see them!”
She’d heard us talk about the night skies. Heard others talk about the stars in the heavens. She’d colored pictures of five-pointed stars in coloring books. But she’d never seen them with her own eyes. She didn’t know it was an option.
This book is written for all the Julies out there who don’t know you can see with the eyes of your heart. It’s for each and every person who is still standing with his or her nose against the canvas, longing to know what the picture is.
My prayer, like Paul’s, is that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened. And for what purpose? Ephesians 1:18–19 says it all: “That you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and his incomparably great power for us who believe.”
There’s a whole view God longs to give us. He wants to put His loving touch on your eyes and show you that He is in the picture. He longs for you to know that He is in the everyday life you live—in the tiniest details. He desires for us to have a clearer picture of who He is and who we are in Him.
Open your eyes—the eyes of your heart—and look around you. I think you’re in for a pleasant surprise, but I must add a word of caution. There is a price for this kind of sight.
Once the eyes of your heart are opened, once you see God in the details and understand the bigger picture, you’ll never be content to go back to having your nose on the canvas. This kind of experience will change your life—forever.
Tracie shares her thoughts on why she writes fiction:
Fiction has always appealed to me as a form of entertainment and education; many of my favorite authors demonstrate that you can share a variety of information and still present a marvelous story as well. I like that about fiction. In my own writing, I love to take life experiences, both my own and those of historical characters, and mingle them into stories. The lessons God has taught me along the way are always useful to my writing ministry. And in blending all of these elements together, fiction writing seemed a likely format for sharing with others. Many people will avoid stepping into a church or picking up a Bible, but they will pick up a novel. When they do, I want my fiction to share the hope to which I’ve been called—that God has a plan for each person’s life and that He loves us more than we can ever imagine. Writing, in any form, is a ministry I feel God has called me to. I want whatever I do to reflect my love for Him.
Tracie Peterson
TRACIE PETERSON is the bestselling, award-winning author of more than 80 novels. Tracie also teaches writing workshops at a variety of conferences on subjects such as inspirational romance and historical research. She and her family live in Belgrade, Montana.
Visit Tracie’s Web site at: www.traciepeterson.com
Books by Tracie Peterson
* * *
www.traciepeterson.com
House of Secrets • A Slender Thread • Where My Heart Belongs
LAND OF THE LONE STAR
Chasing the Sun
BRIDAL VEIL ISLAND*
To Have and To Hold To Love and Cherish
SONG OF ALASKA
Dawn’s Prelude • Morning’s Refrain • Twilight’s Serenade
STRIKING A MATCH
Embers of Love • Hearts Aglow • Hope Rekindled
ALASKAN QUEST
Summer of the Midnight Sun
Under the Northern Lights • Whispers of Winter
Alaskan Quest (3 in 1)
BRIDES OF GALLATIN COUNTY
A Promise to Believe In • A Love to Last Forever
A Dream to Call My Own
THE BROADMOOR LEGACY *
A Daughter’s Inheritance • An Unexpected Love
A Surrendered Heart
BELLS OF LOWELL*
Daughter of the Loom • A Fragile Design • These Tangled Threads
LIGHTS OF LOWELL*
A Tapestry of Hope • A Love Woven True • The Pattern of Her Heart
DESERT ROSES
Shadows of the Canyon • Across the Years • Beneath a Harvest Sky
HEIRS OF MONTANA
Land of My Heart • The Coming Storm
To Dream Anew • The Hope Within
LADIES OF LIBERTY
A Lady of High Regard • A Lady of Hidden Intent
A Lady of Secret Devotion
RIBBONS OF STEEL**
Distant Dreams • A Hope Beyond • A Promise for Tomorrow
RIBBONS WEST**
Westward the Dream • Separate Roads
WESTWARD CHRONICLES
A Shelter of Hope • Hidden in a Whisper • A Veiled Reflection
YUKON QUEST
Treasures of the North • Ashes and Ice • Rivers of Gold
* with Judith Miller ** with Judith Pella
Notes
[1]. Oswald Chambers, If You Will Ask, 1989. Used by permission of Discovery House Publishers, Box 3566, Grand Rapids, MI 49501. All rights reserved.
[2]. Oswald Chambers, My Utmost for His Highest, © 1935 by Dodd Mead & Co., copyright renewed in 1963 by the Oswald Chambers Publications Association, Limited, and is used by permission of Discovery House Publishers, Box 3566, Grand Rapids, MI 49501. All rights reserved.
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