Near the beginning of the book, Dr. Watson is marvelling at the way in which Sherlock Holmes is able to notice details about a situation that he is unable to himself. Sherlock picks up on the most minuscule of clues, and even though the same clues are available to Watson, he lacks the ability to piece them together and form conclusions from the evidence. Sherlock tests Watson by asking how many stairs are in the staircase leading to his room. Watson doesn't know, even though he has walked those stairs hundreds of times. Then Sherlock says, "Quite so! You have not observed. And yet you have seen. That is just my point. Now, I know that there are seventeen steps, because I have both seen and observed."
There's a difference between seeing and truly observing. Two people can look at the same situation, but only one of them might perceive the greater reality of what is going on. This happens more often than when we're trying to solve London-based crime mysteries, too. For one thing, it happens in our interaction with God.
The church I have been attending in Cincinnati started a sermon series called "Sync," and it deals with this idea that we don't always really observe the reality confronting us. Here's what the church's website says about the series:
God is always there--we often miss Him. God is at work around us and for us every day, and desires to be at work in us and through us--if we are open to that. But living spiritually in a material world is a continual challenge. We live for a God who is invisible, but real. So if we don't see Him or hear an audible voice, how do we experience Him? Where do we find Him? This series of messages is about encountering God, and then getting our lives synced with Him. It's a series of stories from Scripture about people who met Him and how they were changed as a result. Some were searching for Him; some weren't. But they all encountered the living God.We're not always very good at picking up on the presence of God or on how he is at work. We see, but we don't observe. In the first sermon of the "Sync" series, the preacher talked about Genesis 28, when Jacob flees from his family for fear of his brother, whom he had ripped off and who was big and hairy and angry. On his journey, Jacob stops to sleep on the ground, and he has a dream in which he sees a stairway going up to heaven with angels all over it, and God appears and renews the Abrahamic covenant with Jacob. When Jacob wakes up, he says, "Surely the Lord is in this place, and I was not aware of it" (Gen. 28:16).
It's not as though God only showed up there during Jacob's dream. He was there all the time. And not only that, but he was with Jacob all the time. God was at work in Jacob's life in ways that he didn't even perceive, so God had to make things very obvious to him through this spectacular dream.
The preacher also referenced 2 Kings 6, where the prophet Elisha and his servant are surrounded by the armies of Aram, who have come to capture them. When the servant sees the situation, he freaks out and begins to despair, but Elisha somewhat cryptically replies, "Those who are with us are more than those who are with them." Then Elisha prays, "O Lord, open his eyes so he may see." Then, when the servant looks out, he "saw the hills full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha." At first, the servant sees the situation, but Elisha observes. He sees how God is working behind the scenes, and it gives him peace.
I wonder how many times I am in a situation where God is working but I never perceive it. Not until afterwards, anyway. I imagine it's pretty frequently. Maybe the same thing happens to you. You go through a tough time, but then when you're on the other side of it you can look back at it and say, like Jacob, "Surely the Lord is in this place, and I was not aware of it." But if we began to purposely look at the world with the purpose of perceiving God, how much more comfort and peace and joy might we be able to find in times of trouble?
Another way in which we often see but fail to observe is in our interactions with other people. Every day, you probably walk past hundreds of people. But how many of their faces can you even recall? Probably not very many. And honestly, even when you interact with people you know (or even some of your good friends!), you might not really try to see deeper situations that might be going on. We are masters of small-talk, and we might get to know people without every really getting to know them at all. Instead of really listening to and trying to understand one another, we just skate along the surface. We see, but we don't observe.
My encouragement to you, then, is to work on being conscious of the deeper realities that surround you every day. God is present, and God is active, and we are more able to join in with what he is doing in the world when we perceive what it is that he's doing. At the same time, we walk among people who have stories and personalities, and we would perhaps be better people if we learned to see beyond the face and understand the person.
Might as well go solve some mysteries well you're at it.
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