One Bird Watching

...Then He opened their minds to understand the scriptures....You are to be my witnesses to it all (Luke 24).

 

"You are My witnesses," declares the Lord, "and My servant whom I have chosen...

I have revealed and saved and proclaimed---You are my witnesses," declares the Lord, "that I am God.  Yes, and from ancient days, I am he" (Is. 43:10-13).

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I used to hear sermons that urged us to "evangelize;" we were supposed to "spread the word" and "be witnesses" by our lives to the truth of the Gospel.  Frankly, whenever I heard these things, I always imagined myself standing on the corner of Canal Street in New Orleans, holding up a bible and saying, "The end is near."  Or being like a Jehovah's Witness, knocking on doors and asking if people believed that the world was coming to an end.  Neither of these images seemed to fit with my personality or inclinations.

 

Lately, however, I am slowly coming to realize that an eyewitness is one who "watches," who "sees" what is happening.  If I go to court to testify what I have seen, it means that I "watched" the scene unfold, that I was alert and awake and aware of what was happening at the time.  It does not mean that I caused anything to happen, or even that I was a participant, but only that I can testify to the truth of what I saw.

 

For three years (x365 days, more or less), Jesus' disciples "watched" Him at work.  They for the most part had little to do but to observe Jesus doing the wonderful things He did:  the blind see, the lame walk, the possessed have demons cast out, and the poor hear the Good News.  In fact, on the rare occasions that the disciples attempted to "do" something, they often failed miserably -- "Lord, why could we not cast out the demon?" they asked.  It was not until they had been anointed with the Holy Spirit that they were empowered to perform mighty works themselves in the Name of Jesus.

 

"Lord, open my eyes; I want to see," cried the blind man.  That was not a one-time event; He still opens blind eyes today to see what He is doing in our own lives and in the world around us.  There are many people -- many people -- today who still cannot see God at work in themselves or in others.  We all have need of the miracle of "seeing."  Jesus told Nicodemus, "Unless you are born again of water and the Holy Spirit, you cannot [even] see the kingdom of God."  The kingdom, the power and the Presence of God, is hidden, like yeast in the dough, and yet ever at work in the world around us.  But it takes opened eyes to be able to see it. 

 

Jesus told the disciples, "The knowledge of the secrets of the kingdom of God has been given to you, but to others I speak in parables, so that, "though seeing, they may not see; though hearing, they may not understand" (Luke 8).  If we want to "see" what God is doing today, we need to go to Jesus, who opened both the eyes of the blind and the minds of the disciples to understand.  The prophet Isaiah said, "In that day, the deaf will hear the words of the scroll, and out of gloom and darkness, the eyes of the blind will see" (29:18).

 

Someplace in Isaiah, I think, I once read a passage: Who will dedicate himself to be close to Me?  I remember when reading that verse that it struck my soul:  I wanted to be that person that would be "close to the Lord," to see what He was doing.  In another passage from Is. 21:

This is what the Lord says to me:

"Go, post a lookout and have him report what he sees...

Let him be alert, fully alert."

And the lookout shouted,

"Day after day, my lord, I stand on the watchtower:

every night I stay at my post."

 

The reason I first called this blog "One Bird Watching" was that I read an anonymous poem posted in New Harmony, Indiana, and it struck the same chord in my heart:

 

When no one listens

To the quiet trees,

When no one notices

The sun in the pool;

 

When no one feels

The first drop of rain,

Or sees the last star;

 

Or hails the first morning

Of a giant world

Where the peace begins

and rages end;

 

One bird sits still

Watching the work of God:

One turning leaf,

Two falling blossoms,

Ten circles upon the pond.

 

Faith is nothing more than our response to what we see and hear of the kingdom of God as it comes.  Jesus always said, "What I see My Father doing, that is what I do."  When we can finally begin to "see" and "hear" what God is doing among us, that is what we also can do, not because of our strength, but because we at last "know" what the Father does.