Unseen

About a year ago, there was nothing here. It was nothing but an empty plot of land covered in dirt. I remember walking by during the early stages of construction, as they dug the land, laid the pipes, and built the road. I knew one day it would be houses, but at the time I couldn't see it.

I haven't walked by this site in months and today I saw an entire neighbor that has seemingly sprung up overnight from where piles of dirt once stood, although I know that isn't the case. It took months and months of hard work, building from the ground up, in each stage certain requirements to be met, certain aspects that could not be completed until another was and I couldn't help but think to myself how often we look at our lives this way, and how if we could see things through God's eyes, perhaps we would view the process differently.

So often, we see the dirt. The vast landscape of nothingness before us, and that's ALL we see. We know that God has been at work beneath the surface, adding the pipes, building the foundation, we get it... but we can so quickly lose heart when we don't see houses springing up from the ground overnight. Today was a reminder to my weary heart that the Lord can bring things into existence that do not yet exist.

"as it is written, “I have made you the father of many nations”—in the presence of the God in whom he believed, who gives life to the dead and calls into existence the things that do not exist." (Romans 4:17)

Where we see vast emptiness, God sees a canvas for his good, good plans for our lives. Where we see dirt, God sees beauty.

Where we see nothingness, God sees a story to be written for His glory.

I could not see what would be where these houses now stand a year ago, I only saw the dirt.

In the same way, I cannot always see what God is doing or the things He is orchestrating in my life but if we know our good, good Father, then we can trust that the end result will be more than we could ever have hoped for or imagined.

However, even if we never see the promise in this lifetime, we can know that the vast landscape we see we see before us, the years of building up, is all preparing us for an eternal house of glory with the Lord that will make all else look dim in the light of eternity with Jesus. This beautiful journey we are on, becoming more like Christ with each passing day, may be filled with things we cannot yet see, but like Abraham, we must choose to walk by faith, believing in what is unseen, for what is unseen is eternal.

"So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.” (2 Corinthians 4:18)

There is a beautiful story being built out of our nothingness. God's glory out of the dirt. And one day, we will see a house beyond comparison that He has prepared for us in heaven, a dwelling place with Him forever. One day, what looked like an empty lot, will become a glorious display of God's faithfulness and careful hand upon our lives. As we fix our eyes on heaven, we can begin to see more and more God's masterful hand at work, and His glory on display in every moment and every season of our lives. The tender weaving of Christ, from the original floor plan, to the ground-breaking, to the walls going up, to a home filled with joy.

Christ has come to make His home within our hearts, to complete His good purposes in our lives. Where there once was nothing, He sees His Kingdom. Amen.