The Gift of Faith

I took this last spring when the surrounding fields were covered with beautiful golden carpets of Wild Mustard.

Doug Wilson is a pastor and writer whose insights often inspire, challenge and sometimes, well, I’ll be honest: sometimes they just just confuse me. :-)  Today, his words really resonated with me.

“Search the scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me” (John 5:39).

God has given us many gifts — indeed, there is nothing we have that is not a gift. But there is only one gift from Him that enables us to see through things.

When we see through a gift, with a gift, we are enabled to see the Giver on the other side of the gift. When we cannot see through a gift, we are stuck with looking at it. With the gift of faith, everything is a window. Without the gift of faith everything is a mural.

We can look at the Scriptures, like a mural, or through the Scriptures, like a window. The same thing is true of everything else God gives us — sacraments, sermons, families, stories, food, air, and sunshine. We can stare at it, thinking that the mere existence of the thing justifies its existence, or we can allow the great gift of faith to pose the question why for us, and then graciously answer the question for us with the who.

Look through. See through. Peer beyond. This too is the gift of God.