Yesterday in Chemistry we were talking about the light spectrum. As soon as I saw the illustration I realized that just like most light is invisible to our eyes, much of reality is invisible to our eyes.
I think it’s common to feel like we can’t figure out our lives most of the time. We can’t make sense of what we see because we are mostly blind. It seems like we see everything, but in reality there is much more going on than we can perceive. We can’t always rely on our eyes for sight.
Before Jesus went to the cross, he predicted his death and resurrection to the disciples. Peter took him aside and rebuked him for what he was saying, but Jesus responded, “Get away from me, Satan! You are seeing things merely from a human point of view, not from God’s.” (Mark 8:33)
If someone called me Satan, I don’t think I’d ever forget it.. much more if Jesus did. That would be traumatic. Talk about needing therapy! But Jesus wasn’t so much calling him a name as he was exposing the truth. Satan tempts us to rely on our physical senses, and we naturally tend to judge situations from a human perspective. And then we tell God how things should happen.
What if things had happened as Peter expected? What if Jesus sat on the throne as King of the Jews rather than dying as King of the world on the cross? Peter would have never seen the Kingdom, and neither would we. He wouldn’t want things to happen like he expected, he just didn’t know it yet.
How have you been disappointed? Did it seem as if the stars were lining up before the sky went black? Did it feel like you were kneeling before the throne of God until the golden streets turned to dust and you tasted blood? Did you look up to find a cross?
There is a light spectrum that has no end, but we only see a small range of wavelengths. When the colors we see don’t make sense, we must remember all the other wavelengths. Far beyond what we can perceive, God is doing greater things.
In reality, we wouldn’t want things to happen like we expect, we just don’t know it yet.