Expanding our Vision

I bet you have looked through a microscope somewhere along your path of exploration and learning. You have probably looked through a telescope too. My father was a physician. Medicine was his vocation, and one of his side interests was astronomy.  His medical training was at Northwestern University Medical School in Chicago. I imagine there, and in his pre-med work at the University of Arizona, his biology studies had him examining things imperceptible to the naked eye. And in his avocation, he looked through telescopes at things far away in the heavens.

Not matching my father’s aptitude, I survived only the minimum requirement of science in school, but even I prepared slides and looked at things using a microscope. My dad showed all the Price kids a thing or two through a telescope we had at the house and because we lived in Tucson, Arizona, not far from the Kitt Peak National Observatory, he also took us there. The giant telescopes there were very impressive. I also visited McDonald Observatory in the Davis Mountains of Texas in 1986. That was when Halley’s Comet was visible. I am glad I got to see it magnified, especially since I may be busy with other things at the age of 105 when it comes to our skies again.

The tools of microscopes and telescopes extend the limits of our natural vision for the important work of science. Just as we have senses to help us observe the physical realm, we also have spiritual senses to help us perceive things of the spirit. In the Letter of Paul to the Ephesians, our Epistle lesson for this Sunday, the Apostle wants to equip Christians for keen perception. He prays for the souls in his care to be able to know things spiritually that would not naturally be known to them. First Paul commends them for their faith and their love toward all their fellow believers. Then he assures them, praying God to grant them a spirit of special vision and wisdom that the eyes of their hearts could see three important things.

Paul wants them to be enlightened to see their calling of hope, the priceless value of their inheritance and the incalculable power of Christ applied to believers. These are insights for all Christians, not just Christians in the Greek city of Ephesus in the first century. You and I and all who believe can claim these promises. Do you embrace that hope, that inheritance and those divine powers applied to you? Take a look at how Paul puts it, and fully absorb the wonder of this prayer for you:

I pray that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you a spirit of wisdom and revelation as you come to know him, so that, with the eyes of your heart enlightened, you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance among the saints, and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power for us who believe, according to the working of his great power. God put this power to work in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places. —Ephesians 1:17-20

Our hearts’ limited vision cannot see these truths naturally, but God graciously compensates with the spirit of wisdom and revelation, that we might know Christ quite fully, to enlighten our hearts completely. Thereby you can know first that you are called to supernatural hope, second, you are the beneficiary of the spiritual riches of God, and the third point is profoundly striking. It is about power: not the personal power of the Christian, but God’s power applied to the believer. The promised power is the same working power that the Eternal raised Christ from the dead, the energy that lifted him to the throne at God’s right hand. How astounding!

We are used to thinking about our own personal human power. At times we have grand notions about it. Take note now that we can rightly perceive a resurrection and ascension power of God at work for us. This is an important perception. It surely takes special spiritual instruments to know these gifts of power, riches, and hope. The gifts we have in Christ are not so high and far off, nor too hidden from our sight that we cannot know them. God reveals them to us. Take hold of the power, hope, and riches that are given.