Something to show.

I’ve pondered lately about how important it feels to have something to show.

Scrapes and bruises to tell the story.

A smiling photo to remember the family trip.

Medal and a bib to prove the race was run.

To-Do lists and check marks proving productivity.

Numbers on the scale or in the bank account determining value.

Deliverables are important; I know this.

I also know that what goes unseen and unnoticed by most in every story is often the most important.

The Lord through His servants taught powerfully:

“But as it is written, Eye hath not seen⁠, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him.

But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit⁠: for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God.

For what man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him? even so the things of God knoweth no man, except he has the Spirit of God.”

No one but God knows how bad it hurt.

How beautiful it was.

The work it took to even make it to the starting line, let alone the finish.

Discouraging frustration often attends our attempts at and reliance on convincing others to understand.

Covenant confidence always attends a deeper connection with and reliance on Jesus Christ - The One Who has always understood.

We will know that He knows and that will be enough.

Through making and keeping covenants with God, we invite His Spirit into our lives to help us share and see things as they really are.

“Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God.

Which things also we speak, not in the words which man’s wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth⁠; comparing spiritual things with spiritual.

But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned⁠.”

I still like having something to show.

But with clumsy practice, I invest less in visible evidence and public opinion and more in the promises of God.

Because my eyes hath not seen, nor ears heard, neither have entered into my heart the things God has prepared for me.

I love Him.

He has changed me.

I know it.

Even when I don’t have something to show for it.