[ Today's Readings ]
Sometimes the first touch is not meant to be the whole healing. Sometimes the first dove we send out is meant to bring back hope rather than finality. Why would this be? Of course Jesus can heal in one pass if he so desires.
"Do you see anything?"
Looking up the man replied, "I see people looking like trees and walking."
God could make the flood waters recede immediately but instead the gradually flow away.
He waited seven days more and again sent the dove out from the ark.
In the evening the dove came back to him,
and there in its bill was a plucked-off olive leaf!
The dove brings us the olive leaf. Jesus opens our eyes but not completely. We still see in a blurry and partial way. This is because we still live in the world of time. We are still not home. Hope and faith are more important than anything we can have and possess in this world.
For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known (see first Corinthians 13:12).
The land which the LORD reveals is only a shadow of the kingdom where we will one day rest for all eternity. The vision we have now, no matter how good our eyesight, pales in comparison to the kingdom where we behold God face to face.
So we are always of good courage. We know that while we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord, for we walk by faith, not by sight (see Second Corinthians 5:6-7).
Our lives our a process, or better, a pilgrimage. We do not dwell in perfection but rather in hope.
and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us (see Romans 5:5).
Let us not become frustrated with all of the ways we are not yet perfect or where we want to be. Let us not become complacent either. Let us grow in ever increasing hope.
My vows to the LORD I will pay
in the presence of all his people,
In the courts of the house of the LORD,
in your midst, O Jerusalem.
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