How to see without eyes...

They tell me of the young Kogi boys, high in the mountains of Colombia, that live until nine years of age, in almost complete darkness. Chosen at birth as future priests, they are raised by their mothers and older priests in a dark cave to attune to their god before they enter the outside world.

The young priests are taught to see without eyes. To see the spiritual without the physical and then when they are of age, they are released to see the world with their physical eyes.

And I wonder--as I watch those children running down the Sunday school hall, listen to those teens share of their youth trip, or look into my baby's eyes-- how are we, the Christ-followers, teaching our children to see the spiritual?

We with our faith written on our shirts and jewelry. We, with our pockets full of scripture and way of salvation. We with our hallelujah hands, our loud amens, and our promised prayers.

We with our study lessons written neat, with PowerPoint worship slides ready, with our praise songs on the radio.

We with the verses quoted, the Disciples and Books of the Bible memorized, the Sunday school attendance stars neatly in a row.

We are teaching our children how to live their faith in this world...but so easily we forget to teach them of the spiritual world.

The reality is, that we don't teach much of what we can't understand.

We teach our young to pray. To thank God for the food He provides, for the needs in our lives and in the lives of others. We teach them to make it a habit--and well we should.

We have taught them prayers but what have we taught them of Intercession? We speak of the power of prayer but do we live it? Do we truly believe that pounding the doors of Heaven again and again could truly make a difference?

And though we teach our young to memorize the Full Armor of God do we actually teach them to utilize it during a spiritual attack? Can they even recognize a spiritual attack to begin with or will they just see everyday struggles and trials?

We speak of the battle we are in against the Enemy and his darkness, but do we really, truly believe it wages even now, or do we tend to use that metaphorically? Like the boogeyman, is our enemy more of a character in the book, than the one who seeks to ensnare and trap us daily?

My heart has long been burdened by this.  Now that I am a mother, it weighs heavier each day.

How do I, a child of dust, teach my own child to see beyond this realm and into the spiritual? How do I teach her--show her-- that this life we live is a reflection of the other, a mere taste of things to come? How do I teach her to see without eyes?

How to I instill in her a desire to seek out what she cannot see or, frankly, understand?

How do I show her by example when daily, I myself struggle with focusing my eyes beyond the temporal? When I barely can keep up with the clamor and the to-do list a mile long in this world?

But I am learning, that all she can see right now is my putting action to words.

By not only telling her when to pray but showing her how to intercede on behalf of others and being the first to bend the knee and the last to rise.

By not only teaching her memorize scripture but to apply it to every situation and see His grace flow.

To not see each day as a box on the calendar, a check mark to complete, but a day to fulfill His calling.

To stand firm against an attack, not by writing it off as "life, disappointment, or happenstance" but as a battle to be won with prayer and faith.

By instilling in her that no relationship is more important than the one with her Father.

That no success or accomplishment can match the joy of Heaven.

That no education can compare with her spiritual knowledge.

That these daily doings and deeds are simply a means of seeing His hand in our lives.

By reminding her daily that though we live in a dark world, we the Christ-followers, can see clearly because we are of the Spiritual realm.

You, however, are not in the realm of the flesh but are in the realm of the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, they do not belong to Christ.

Romans 8:9

Those boys high in mountains of Colombia? They might know better than we do.

They might know that when living in darkness, physical eyes are of little value.

Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see,

This is what the ancients were commended for.

Hebrews11:1-2