Countryside Community Church - Joy Luke Club

This Sunday we’ll be exploring Luke 2 in worship at Countryside Church.  Specifically, we’ll be looking at two curious people who come into the spotlight at the end of the chapter: Simeon the priest, and Anna the prophetess.  Both people are said to have recognized Jesus as the Messiah when he was brought to the temple as an eight-day-old infant to be circumcised.

The stories get me to wondering: How does one recognize the invisible reality that exists within and behind the visible world?  How is it that a priest and prophetess could recognize Jesus as the Messiah of God?  There was no neon sign above his head.  There were no choirs of angels singing his praises.  The stories practically beg the question: How does one develop “eyes to see” and “ears to hear” what others neither see nor hear?

In the 13th C, one of my favorite poets, Jalal ad-Din Muhammad Rumi (or Rumi for short) made this observation:

Everyone sees the unseen in proportion to the clarity of his heart, and that depends upon how much he has polished it.
Whoever has polished it more sees more — more unseen forms become manifest to him.

In contrast to our North American culture which tends to believe that spiritual insight/intuition just comes naturally, and therefore does not require serious or ongoing attention, Rumi offers a helpful counterpoint.  So does Luke 2.  Both Simeon and Anna had been lifetime devotees to the spiritual path.  In fact, Anna is said to have been coming to the Temple daily for 84 years!

What is natural to us is not clarity, but fuzziness with respect to our path in life.  As the apostle Paul observes, “For now we see in a mirror, dimly” (1 Corinthians 13:12).  While there is not much hope of achieving perfect clarity, however, it is indeed possible to bring our lives into much greater focus.  It is possible to increasingly “see” what eyesight fails to reveal, and to “hear” what the ears cannot.

What polishes your mirror?  What have you found that helps increase your powers of intuition or gives greater clarity to your path?