Seeing with God eyes is an art. Usually it has to be cultivated to strengthen. If you think about us all drawing pictures as children, then gradually letting our joyful art eyes go as we begin to think we weren't very good, or weren't as good as others, or were terrible, then you know what can happen to our God-eyes as well.
Seeing God at work usually means looking at small things, insignificant things, typical things. We strive to see God at work in the massive, the magnificent, the majestic. God, of course, can be at work there...but usually is somewhere else.
Hannah's song is the reading from 1 Samuel 2 this morning. Hannah finds herself pregnant after years of barrenness and being made fun of and excluded. Her song sings what she sees with God-eyes. It celebrates the good news of turning the world on its head, of raising up those who have been kept down and putting those who have become their own gods in their place. God is not at work in the priest in this story, but in the pathetic, barren woman praying in the temple. Her son will be one of the greatest priest/prophets in the kingdom...but who would know to look there?
The gospel is the story of the angel, Gabriel, coming to Mary to announce her pregnancy. It will accomplish the same and soon Mary will sing Hannah's song--literally. God isn't working to change the world through the Roman emperor. God brings change through the peasant girl, her carpenter husband, and a baby who never loses his God-eyes.
Seeing God at work requires letting go of the expected, the always-dones, the we can'ts. It takes practice. And faith.
Glasses are not required.
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