A Fine Sight to SeeSýnishorn

Look and See

A couple of years ago I boarded a flight with my Bible in hand, mainly because I couldn’t stop thinking about the life of Moses and wanted to take a closer look. So, with only the empty seats beside me for company, I dove into the book of Exodus in its entirety. I didn’t know what I was looking for. I didn’t know if I would find anything. I just knew, in the strangest way, that I needed to do some deeper digging there.

It didn’t take long for one word in particular to jump out at me over and over again: see. By the time I reached the end of my airplane reading, the tally on some form of the word see or looked or sight was over sixty. Right there on flight 1958, the language of seeing was teaching me a new way of looking at something I’d been thinking about for years: leadership.

The act of seeing marked Moses’ life from the very beginning. His mother “saw that he was a fine baby” (Exodus 2:2 NRSV). When his mother later followed Pharaoh’s decree and placed Moses in a basket in the Nile, Moses’ sister Miriam “stood at a distance, to see what would happen to him” (Exodus 2:4). Then Pharaoh’s daughter “saw the basket among the reeds” (Exodus 2:5), and, on closer inspection, “saw the child” (Exodus 2:6). Miriam saw Pharaoh’s daughter see her brother, and she quickly initiated an arrangement that would allow Moses’ mother to continue to raise her son. Because these women saw with their eyes and with their hearts, they were able to act in Moses’ best interest. Their decision-making—their leadership—impacted his life forever.

So often we want to make a plan, follow it to the letter, and move on to the next thing. However, there might be a critical first step that we’re often tempted to skip: seeing. Are we seeking to discern the deep-down reality of situations we face? Are we considering how our decisions might impact others for a long time? Are we looking at a situation from all angles?

Action is important, no doubt. We want to be people who lead decisively and effectively. But in order to do that, well, we need to see.

As we head into whatever today holds, let’s ask God to give us the wisdom and the patience to do just that.