Kelsi Vanada

Dear Friends,

How often have you had the realization that something was right there in front of you all the time, you just didn’t recognize it? Perhaps the answer to a problem you were facing—or maybe something as simple as finding your phone or glasses. (As my dad says, “If it woulda been a snake, it woulda bitten you.”)

Today is Ascension Day, when Jesus is taken back up into heaven after spending 40 days with his followers after his death and resurrection. In Luke 24, there are two moments just before the Ascension when we hear similar phrases about realization: “Their eyes were opened, and they recognized him,” we read, and then, “he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures.”

This theme comes up in today’s reading from Ephesians as well. Paul writes: “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” (italics mine).

What a beautiful phrase: “the eyes of your heart enlightened.” The non-intellectual part of us. The part that feels its way through life. The ability to understand God’s purposes and how to live rightly in response—which requires more than just brain power.

We have a few days to go before Pentecost, the coming of the Holy Spirit, the Comforter. I think Jesus is teaching his disciples something important that they’ll need to know once he leaves them: they (and we) must learn to see rightly. To see as God sees, to see God moving in the world, to be ready to receive what God offers and go where God leads.

It isn’t always easy—and that’s why we pray for God to open our eyes to see, our ears to hear, our minds to understand, and our hearts to love. Amen.

In Christ,

—Kelsi