Some mornings begin slowly, and this has been one of those mornings. I got up on time and am dressed for the day, but I’m not quite ready to take it on yet. I haven’t made my first cup of coffee, which is unusual, and, even as I begin to type, I’m not sure where this meditation is headed. But I did stumble across a verse in 2 Corinthians, written by the Apostle Paul, that intrigued me the first time I read it and continues to perplex.
“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
One sentence, divided in the middle by a comma. The first half is a puzzle, the second half, a promise.
I understand fixing my eyes on something I can see. A sunset. A loved one. A mountain in the distance. But how do we fix our eyes on what is unseen? I can gaze at nothing, “zone out,” we might say. But how do I “fix” my eyes on what I can’t see?
Paul, of course, is not so much talking literally as he is intentionally. He isn’t suggesting we ignore reality or pretend to see something that isn’t there. He isn’t asking us to pretend that the reality we see and experience in our lives doesn’t exist. He’s going deeper. Paul is inviting us to look beyond what is immediately visible to what we believe to be true … to allow our eyes to be guided by our heart.
Faith has always involved learning to see with more than our physical eyes. If we could see it, touch it, hear it, taste it … it wouldn’t be faith, would it?
When we pray, we fix our eyes on an unseen God. When we trust God’s promises, we fix our eyes on an unseen future. When we choose hope in difficult times, we fix our eyes on an unseen hand at work in our world and in our lives, even as we sometimes question the whys of it all.
Fixing our eyes on what is unseen takes faith and trust. But Paul is reminding us that it’s worth it.
The things we can see demand our attention. Bills, daily errands, one crisis or another, headlines, aches, disappointments, and fears all stand directly in front of us. We don’t have to work hard to see them; they clamor and compete for attention. And, because they’re present right in front of us, they feel permanent. Yet Paul reminds us that they’re temporary. The unseen things—the love of God, the presence of Christ, the work of the Spirit, the coming Kingdom—these are the realities that will endure.
That is the promise tucked into the second half of the verse. What is unseen is eternal.
Today, we may not be able to see exactly what God is doing or understand the why of it all. But faith teaches us to look beyond the temporary and trust the eternal. Today, as you deal with the “seen” in front of you demanding your time and attention, I encourage you to take a few minutes to fix your eyes on the unseen and remember that God’s love for you is eternal.
Prayer: Lord, when the visible things of this world consume my attention, fix my gaze on something of you. Help me to trust your unseen presence, your unseen work, and your eternal promises. Amen.
