The Pentateuch, to Luke, to...Antoine de Saint Exupery?

Numbers 36:1-Deuteronomy 1:46

Luke 5:29-6:11

Psalm 66:1-20

Proverbs 11:24-26

The last name of the title may or may not be familiar.  Perhaps his work is better known - he wrote "The Little Prince", a book that formed the high point of my introduction to literature, by a magnificent freshman English Lit professor, and arguably the best professor I have ever had.  He was, incidentally, one of the best professors my father ever had, having been HIS freshman homeroom teacher as well.

When he taught us English Lit, he brought it to life, reading, breathing, living the text before us in class, then making us memorize what he called "MPs", or "memorable passages".  Many of them were from The Little Prince, one of which was "it is only with the heart that one can see rightly. What is essential is invisible to the eye."  What a wonderful lesson for us today - and for the Israelites during Moses's time, and the Pharisees when Jesus preached.  

Moses did not look with his eyes.  Had he done so, he would have despaired at so many points in his life - when Pharaoh repeatedly refused to release the Israelites, when they were caught between the sea and the Egyptians, when the Israelites rebelled and even got Aaron to create the golden idols.  The israelites, on the other hand, looked with their eyes...and they chose to see the giants that inhabited the land God promised them, rather than the power of God; they chose to see the lack of water, the lack of food, rather than the provision of God; they chose to see the absence of Moses and the golden calf rather than the glory of God.

The Pharisees were little different.  They read the law, and saw with their eyes.  They saw sin, and missed the opportunity for forgiveness when Jesus ate with the tax collectors.  They saw doctrine, but forgot mercy when Jesus healed the man with the shriveled hand on the Sabbath.  

When we look with our eyes, we look upon the physical realm.  Our eyes get fixed upon the material world, its needs, its imperatives, its insistence.  When we close our eyes to the physical world, to its values and rules, it becomes easier to recognize God's hand, His actions, His love.  When we stop worrying about the Egyptians behind us, we can "see what God has done, His awesome deeds for mankind!  He turned the sea into dry land, they passed through the waters on foot."  We can praise Him, for "He has preserved our lives and kept our feet from slipping."  We recognize trials for what they are - His means of refining us like silver.  When we walk through fire and water, we can know we are going to a place of abundance.

So I pray today, that my family and I, we learn to see God with our heart, and not the world with our eyes...and live accordingly, giving freely, not withholding unduly, refreshing others.