Fixing Our Eyes - Encouragement Café - April 5

Fixing Our Eyes
By Noelle Dey

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 NIV

Her fluorescent-yellow eyes forced me to face the inevitable truth.  My mom’s colon cancer had ravaged her body so her organs were shutting down.  The bigger heartache?  I wasn’t losing one parent.  I was losing two.

My dad was dying with her.  The doctors blamed his non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma but I pointed my finger at his broken heart.

Although I put on a happy face, the cancer of hopeless grief was infiltrating my soul.  I desperately wanted God to pull me out of my despair.

And He did… in the most unusual way.

Since I was hyper-focused on my side of the family, it was shocking to get the phone call telling us that my husband’s mom unexpectedly suffered a stroke.  She died the next day.

My father-in-law cried gut-wrenching tears.  He was devastated over the unforeseen loss of his bride.  He was inconsolable until God’s compassion came through my husband’s words.

Mom is still alive… she’s in the present, not the past.  She’s in God’s presence!  We just can’t see her with our human eyes… visualize her with the eyes of your heart.  Imagine she is on the most amazing vacation.  You know she’s having the best time but you don’t have access to call her.  She can’t come to you, but you will eventually go to her.

Those words transformed his grief… and mine.  My husband’s message paralleled 2 Corinthians 4:18.  We can either fix our eyes on the anguish of this temporary world, or we can use the eyes of our hearts and visualize God’s unseen heavenly truths.

Prior to really understanding this verse, I was filled with cancerous anguish.  Now I am in full remission, overflowing with joy in the present and anticipation for what lies ahead.

Are you struggling with grief?  Are you using your physical eyes?  Or are you able to open the eyes of your heart to see God’s truth?  When you focus your vision, you will be anchored in hope. You will be firm and secure.  (Hebrews 6:19)

Dear Heavenly Father, Help us to fix our eyes ahead to what is unseen and eternal.  Anchor us in Your firm and secure hope.  In Jesus’ Name, Amen!

For more encouragement, check out Noelle’s book: Transformation by Truth: 30 days to a healthy heart, mind and body

© 2021 by Noelle Dey.  All rights reserved.

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Originally published Monday, 05 April 2021.

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