The Seen and the Unseen

We’ve been watching the leaves falling from our horse-chestnut tree in our front garden. I spent some time yesterday raking up the leaves, collecting them together into a pile that I shall cover and forget about.

Unseen, they will decompose and become wonderful leaf-mould that in the future I can dig into our garden.

I went to the eye clinic at our hospital yesterday for my regular tests – checking what I can and can’t see; caring, efficient, routine. As I was coming out of the hospital I saw Helen who’d been there with a friend.

I gave them a lift home. I’d not seen Helen for a while so I was able to catch up on some of her news – health, family, the usual stuff… parts of Helen’s life I couldn’t tell just by looking at her.

I’m reading Fauziya Kassindja’s story – her happy, sheltered life childhood in Togo… forced marriage and prospect of genital mutilation… seeking asylum in the United States… humiliation and imprisonment…

Behind the facts of the story, I understand more about justice and human rights, one woman’s inspirational courage, faith in a god… the seen and the unseen.

A group of us met last night to read, chat, and pray together. As part of an affirmation of faith we read:

We believe in Jesus Christ who walks tall among us, seen in our faces, felt in our hearts,

bedded deep in the longing of our souls for all that is true, just and full of hope.

This led to a discussion about hope… whimsical hope, enduring hope, living hope, assured hope, transformational hope, eternal hope… The seen and the unseen.

This morning I read Paul’s words: ‘Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day…

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.’

I’m musing…