Seeing Through the Smoke

Brennan Manning, a favorite Christian author, tells an encouraging story that I would like to share with you. 

Once upon a time a two-story house caught fire.  The family – father, mother, several children – were on their way out when the smallest boy became terrified, tore away from his mother and ran back upstairs.  Suddenly he appeared at the smoke-filled window, crying like crazy.  His father, outside, shouted, “Jump, son, jump!  I’ll catch you.”

The boy cried, “But, daddy, I can’t see you.” 

“I know,” his father called, “I know.  But I can see you.”

~Brennan Manning.

And the moral of the story … God sees through the smoke.  He sees through the smoke-screen, through the burns and blurs and deceptions and through the hardships, the half-told truths and the obscuring stories we tell ourselves and others.

What?  You think I am less than honest?  You think I shade the truth on occasion?  Are you accusing me of fraud?

Maybe.  Perhaps.  And I am right there with you.  I have twisted a line or two to make myself look good.  I have fluffed a resume or two in my day.  And God still loves me, and you as well.

And if we do bend and twist our story a bit, and if we obscure the scene, then this article is not a condemnation but a reprieve.  This is not a deal breaker but a deal maker.  We have a God who sees us anyway.  He sees us at our best moments and our worst.  He sees the homerun hits and the strikeouts.  He sees us on top of the world and in our down-and-out moments of despair.

And He loves us still.  He loves us in the middle of our mundane living.  He loves us in our lies and in our laughter.

Isaiah 43:1 says this (loosely paraphrased by PMB): 

“I know you by name. I call to you.  When you pass through treacherous waters, and lies and deceit, I still see you and redeem you.”  Isaiah 43;1-2

God sees through the smoke.  He finds us when our own eyes obscure the scenery.  He sees us in every act of decency and disgust.

HE SEES US!  You and me.

Thank God for his ever watchful eye that is always upon us.

Thank God indeed.

P Michael Biggs

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