Dazzled

"Hidden treasures in plain view"

A friend made this statement - I stared at her in astonishment, then scrambled to write it down.

What a loaded phrase!

"Hidden treasures in plain view"

She was talking about spiritual matters at the time, so let's go there first. To try to illustrate - another friend asked recently: "Why did God make the bible so hard to understand?" - He was genuinely aggrieved. I remembered how it was once a closed book to me too. And how frustrating that was. Eventually I had learnt to ask God to show me what He was saying, literally to teach me, before it suddenly began to make sense. And then to sparkle And finally to become rivetting and full of meaning and power. Here's the thing: The printed words on the page of the bible hadn't changed one jot. They were there in plain view - just the same as ever. But now, the treasure in them was no longer hidden. So, how did that happen? Then think about the same phrase concerning nature. These "hidden" treasures in plain view - The sparkle of sun on an ordinary slab of rock; the vivid colours in soils; the sound of wind through trees; the perfection of the tiniest insect; the shimmer of a petal; the blue lucidity of a hot noon sky; the aching beauty of a face lined with age and painful experience . . . There is no end to these treasures in plain view So then, in what sense are they hidden? We are so often blind to them. Is it from rush? From familiarity? Ah, the disaster of rush . . . So little time to stand and look So little time to think and wonder . . . I really want to "see" truth and beauty With wide open eyes In every way. Isn't that another way of "being present"?