a view through annie's eyes

One of the reasons I started this blog last year was to remind myself where I see my amazing God. I called it “annie’s eyes” to remind me to look, as Henry Blackaby states in Experiencing God, “see where God is working and join Him there.” I often find God in a place, more often in a person, sometimes in an experience, and most often in others’ eyes. Pearl Bailey once noted, “People see God every day. They just don’t recognize Him.” Perhaps that is one of my biggest failures if I cannot or choose not to open my eyes to His presence. I am afraid I will miss God and the wonderful, even if sometimes brief, glimpse of eternity. Today is GodStop Friday, hosted by Patty, who sees God in so many wondrous ways at Girlfriends in God. Stop by and see others’ amazing God-sightings this week.

We’ve all known people who have been through so much. In a Bible study I am doing online, we recently finished studying about Job who had everything and lost it—his children, his health, his fortune, but he said “Yet will I trust Him.” For everything He had came from God. And then we read about Joseph, who had his father’s favor and was almost killed by his brothers, then punished in prison for thirteen years, yet he wasn’t angry because he saw God in his situation. He was not angry because he knew it was his destiny to save his family and Egypt from the famine. What is the point in each of their stories? Job and Joseph saw God in their suffering. They saw God in their pain. They saw Him in their loneliness, their abandonment, their depression. And, they gave Him praise. “Though He slays me, yet will I trust Him!”

I saw God in so many joyful places this week, celebrating birthdays, meeting a new dear friend, remembering that my husband deserves to be honored and treated well, walking through a week of love from children, from family from friends. It was easy to see God in moments of joy. I want to also remember to see him in moments when it is not so easy. I want to feel like Job when he said (Job 42:5 Amp. Vers.) “I had heard of You only by the hearing of the ear; but now my spiritual eye sees You.” I want to remember what Joseph did when he told his brothers, You meant this for evil, but God used it for good.(Gen 45:5)

Today, I pray for each one of us to have spiritual eyes to see God in all things. Happy Godstop Friday. Don’t miss a moment of Him.