You are my witnesses.
—Isaiah 44:8
We have been given eyes to see and ears to hear. Yet, what is truly important sometimes remains unseen or unheard simply because it is subtle or hidden. It may be that we are too busy to be attentive, or we are distracted by what is less important.
We may find that our daily life seems as predictable as the tide, rising and falling in expected patterns. When we're busy, or distracted, or complacently expectant, our capacity to see and hear gets smaller.
Then it happens. We suddenly notice the green shoots lining our walkway, or see how sunlight turns clouds silver after a rain, or we listen, really listen, to the story of a friend who was healed from sickness or grief.
We may be surprised by a sunrise, have a new insight, or suddenly feel the touch of heaven. Then we are like Moses at the burning bush—we are stopped in our tracks—because we unexpectedly find that we are a witness to something extraordinary. We are a witness to the movement of God's hand.
For that moment, we are as alert as a deer in a clearing. Every cell of our body is attentive to the miracle before us. We capture the image, we hear the timorous tones, we etch the memory into our soul, we feel gratitude rising in us.
We are grateful because we have been graced with the gift of being a witness to the unfolding of God's action in the world, and our soul is set to be a bearer of that goodness to others.
Gracious God, may the vision of my eyes be clear and the channel of my ears by unstopped so my soul is ready to be a witness to miracles.