Invisible

God calls us to live in the invisible and eternal while we make our way through this very visible and temporal world. This is the essence of faith, the call to faith. Christ-followers believe and follow a God we cannot see. We believe that He is Who He says He is and that He will do what He says He will do.

The apostle Peter walked with the visible Jesus for three-plus years. He knew the color of His eyes, the shape of His hands, the timbre of His voice. After the resurrection and ascension, Peter walked with the invisible Jesus. Peter understands our situation:

“Though you have not seen Him, you love Him; and even though you do not see Him now, you believe in Him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy” (I Peter 1:8).

Inexpressible and glorious joy. Walking with an invisible God is not dry fare.

This morning I read about Nicodemus in John chapter three. Nicodemus was a Pharisee, a man steeped in religion, a spiritual man. Nicodemus recognized God was with Jesus and initiated private conversation. But when Jesus spoke to him of invisible-spiritual realities, Nicodemus was uncomprehending.

“Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a man is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.”

Nicodemus responded, “How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?”

Nicodemus was stuck in the material world.

We all are more comfortable handling the concrete. Faith calls us to live from the invisible world in this visible world. But soon our opportunity to honor God with faith is gone. God is blessed when we love, trust and obey Him without seeing Him. We, too, are blessed with “inexpressible and glorious joy.”