Seeing, Seen
Seeing is something I am still learning.
My eyes might have opened the rainy, chaotic Texas day I was born, but I certainly have a lifetime of learning how to see.
I am still learning that how I see isn’t what really is. Elementary indeed, but it doesn’t make it any less true. I have filters like the filters on a camera lens that change the color and shape, the sharpness or the focus of what I see. Often, like a camera, I take those snapshots seen through those filters and think the prints are the reality.
They’re not.
They are two-dimensional at best.
We humans, though, are not two-dimensional. We are much more than we think we are, much more than we see.
We are not just paintings on a wall. We are sculptures in a garden that seen from one side or another will change how we are perceived. And depending on where I stand will change how I see you.
There is an old Zulu saying, “I see you with my heart.” It implies a way of seeing that moves past filters, facades, wounds, and circumstance. It is a seeing that uses grace instead of light to see by, love instead of lenses to perceive. Peter Gabriel sings in his song "The Book of Love,"”I, I love it when you give me things. And You, you love to give me wedding rings.” This kind of seeing of the Heart, is akin to receiving and giving wedding rings.
It is a way of seeing that I hope is growing in me.
Seeing you with my heart, seems to require being seen with a heart, too. For my journey, the one who sees me best with the heart is the One who created me. His way of seeing me will always be the most perfect and correct perception. And somehow, in that I can start seeing you with his Heart, the way you are meant to be seen.
Oh and somewhere in all this perception, there are ways you see me that are more true than the ways I see myself. I am learning to drop my own snapshots and prints for the ones you see…. Because a chord in my heart rings true as you share with me what your heart sees in me.
My eyes might have opened the rainy, chaotic Texas day I was born, but I certainly have a lifetime of learning how to see.
I am still learning that how I see isn’t what really is. Elementary indeed, but it doesn’t make it any less true. I have filters like the filters on a camera lens that change the color and shape, the sharpness or the focus of what I see. Often, like a camera, I take those snapshots seen through those filters and think the prints are the reality.
They’re not.
They are two-dimensional at best.
We humans, though, are not two-dimensional. We are much more than we think we are, much more than we see.
We are not just paintings on a wall. We are sculptures in a garden that seen from one side or another will change how we are perceived. And depending on where I stand will change how I see you.
There is an old Zulu saying, “I see you with my heart.” It implies a way of seeing that moves past filters, facades, wounds, and circumstance. It is a seeing that uses grace instead of light to see by, love instead of lenses to perceive. Peter Gabriel sings in his song "The Book of Love,"”I, I love it when you give me things. And You, you love to give me wedding rings.” This kind of seeing of the Heart, is akin to receiving and giving wedding rings.
It is a way of seeing that I hope is growing in me.
Seeing you with my heart, seems to require being seen with a heart, too. For my journey, the one who sees me best with the heart is the One who created me. His way of seeing me will always be the most perfect and correct perception. And somehow, in that I can start seeing you with his Heart, the way you are meant to be seen.
Oh and somewhere in all this perception, there are ways you see me that are more true than the ways I see myself. I am learning to drop my own snapshots and prints for the ones you see…. Because a chord in my heart rings true as you share with me what your heart sees in me.