Ephesians 1 | Wayfarer

I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better.
Ephesians 1:17 (NIV)

I’m back from a self-imposed exile on social media which I took in observance of the season of Lent. While technically that season was over on Easter Sunday, I’ve found myself slow to return. It’s been an interesting and challenging sabbatical, but more on that in the days and weeks ahead. I’m still processing.

Do you remember the “Magic Eye” art that was a trending fad for about 10 seconds back in the 1980’s. It was a generated mixture of colors that originally feels like a computer generated Jackson Pollock painting, but if you “looked at it right” a three dimensional object would suddenly become visible to you. Once you “learned how to see it” you couldn’t stop seeing the hidden three-dimensional images while others around you struggled to do so. I have fond memories of watching my mother stare forever at a magic eye image “trying to see it” while her entire family tried to teach her “how to do it” (all at the same time). She never saw it.

I’ve had a similar experience in recent weeks with the concept of the four levels that I introduced in a message a few months and and talked about in my mid-Lent podcast. It seems I can’t stop seeing it, and today’s chapter is a great example.

The opening of Paul’s letter to the Ephesians is a preamble focused on introducing a Level Four (eternal) perspective to everything. Paul touches on the eternal past where we were chosen to be in Christ “before the foundation of the world.” It moves to the eternal future and “times fulfillment” when Christ will “bring unity to all things.” Paul goes on to pray that the believers will have the “eyes of your heart enlightened” (like suddenly being able to see a “Magic Eye” image) in order that they might know three Level Four realities:

Hope to which we are called
Riches of His glorious inheritance in his holy people
His incomparably great power for us who believe.

In the quiet this morning I look back over my journey and realize that much of it has been spent focused on seeing and experiencing life through my Level One to Three lenses while Spirit has been gently trying to open the eyes of my heart to see Level Four reality in all the other levels of my journey. Like my mother with the Magic Eye image, I’ve been slow to see it, but now I’m finding myself looking at my entire journey, past, present, and future, differently.

I’m praying Paul’s prayer this morning for more of the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, that I might continually know Him better. While I’m at it, I’m praying the same for you, too.

Have a great week, my friend.

Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. Ephesians 1:3 (NIV)

Earlier this week I was reading about new discoveries in the scientific community relating to physics. Wendy and I have enjoyed long conversations through the years about our faith and science. I credit Wendy with introducing me to the writings and works of Madeleine L’Engle, whose fiction and non-fiction writings both explore the intersection of these two disciplines which have famously warred with one another through the centuries. Wendy and I don’t feel tremendous conflict between the two. Faith that denies science is foolish, as is science that denies its inherent faith. For Wendy and me, our creative imaginations find all sorts of fascinating correlations that complement both.

What I read earlier this week dealt with the theory of relativity and time. It explored the idea of parallel realities and time existing in different dimensions. The possibilities are mind blowing, and it makes me shake my head in gleeful wonder. Despite all that we’ve learned throughout history, I sense that we have only scratched the surface of the depth and complexity that our Creator wove into all creation. As for things existing at once in different dimensions, that’s already hinted at in God’s story.

The verse above from Paul’s letter to the Jesus followers in Ephesus is one of my favorites to chew on in the same vein with which I chew on my rudimentary understanding of relativity and quantum theory. We live on this earth in the moment, our lives bound by the realities of flawed humanity, sickness, conflict, tragedy, and monotony. At the same moment, according to this verse, we have been (past tense) blessed in heavenly realms (is this what science would call another dimension in another or outside of our present time?) with every spiritual blessing in Christ. We exist simultaneously in different realities, bound in earthly time and blessed in spiritual eternity. Talk about mind blowing.

Today, as I write this, we are celebrating Good Friday when Jesus was beaten and crucified. For those of faith, we believe that on the cross and in the empty tomb that was to follow on Sunday morning, there was a fundamental shift in both the earthly and spiritual dimensions which forever altered our present earthly reality and the reality of our standing in the spiritual dimension/realm that exists beyond time. While I do not claim to understand it all, I have faith in the glimpse of it I have been given, and once again I shake my head in the wonder of it all.