What Is Not Seen

Today my friends, I begin a new chapter in my writing career, a sort-of blending of my two greatest aspirations and ambitions. The first being my devotion to Jesus Christ, who made me, saved me by His blood, and gave me new life with Him. And the second being my love of fantastical things, and writing of them.

I am going to be taking certain parts of some dearly beloved fantasy works ranging from Tolkein to Beagle and everything in between. As a note, the interpretations I am going to be taking from the novels are my own, if you disagree with the stance I take, well, it is your mind and your heart.

But let me be clear: While the books I am looking at will be fantasy, the Scriptures, the Bible is the absolutely true and all-sufficient Word of God, and I will be using as such. I am not making light of the truth of God.

The Last Unicorn by Peter S. Beagle is a classic work of magic and adventure, but the main character, the so-named “last unicorn” is not what one would call a relatable character. Unicorns in Beagle’s world are the most beautiful creatures alive, totally pure, white as snow, and unmistakable, or so it was. But the Unicorn discovers something disheartening as she searches for more of her kind. Two men she encounters mistake her for a white mare, for they cannot see her true form, her true power, her true beauty. Something veils their eyes from what she truly is, and she is flabbergasted at this revelation.

“’How can it be?’ she wondered. ‘I suppose I could understand it if men had simply forgotten unicorns, or if they had changed so that they hated all unicorns now and tried to kill them when they saw them. But not to see something else—what do they look like to one another, then? What do trees look like to them, or houses, or real horses, or their own children?’” (The Last Unicorn-pg. 7, Beagle)

This story is a noble, yet sad one, about fading beauty and how men can lose sight of things that are truly beautiful and see them as ordinary or even worthless. This is a real problem of the heart for humanity, and not just inside this fictional tale, but in reality as well.

Let me explain. Romans 1:18-23 “For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things.”

They exchanged the glory of God for lesser things.

You see my friends, this is the true sorrow of humanity, Because of our wicked and deceitful hearts (Jeremiah 17:9) our eyes are all too easily veiled from seeing God as He truly is, indeed without the Holy Spirit’s supernatural work in our hearts we will never see God as He is.

Just as men in the story could not see the unicorn for what she truly was, an immortal and pure, and beautiful creature, so it is with us and God. We see Him only as a Judge and mistake Him for a merely wrathful God. We see only His Love and thus diffuse His power and glory. Or some do not see Him at all, and see only nature, or some kind of strange fate or trust in science to find answers only God has to reveal.

You see the great danger that the human heart is in my friends? For if God is truly what the Scriptures say: The Almighty, All-powerful, All-Knowing, All-Loving, All-Just, Sovereign, Creator of the universe, then the crime of deceiving our hearts to see Him as something, or someone else is high indeed.

Our sin damns us to hell because we fail to grasp God’s glory as He intended for us.

Jeremiah 2:11-13 “Has a nation changed its gods, even though they are no gods?
But my people have changed their glory for that which does not profit. Be appalled, O heavens, at this; be shocked, be utterly desolate, declares the Lord,
for my people have committed two evils: they have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters,
and hewed out cisterns for themselves, broken cisterns that can hold no water.”

We are all guilty of this, as much as we may try to deny it. How many times a day are you angry? How many times a day do you worry? How many times a day do you say in your heart “if I only had that” or “If only I had more”? How many times in a day do you let your eyes wander to evil things, or let your heart burn with envy or jealousy towards another?

And that is the short list. I assure you, if I were to keep going, I would find your sin on the list sooner or later.

But the real sin is that you are forsaking God, the Purest, Holiest, Most High, and most Beautiful thing in both the earth and heavens, and under the earth. In all the universe you could not find His equal or anything with which to compare. I know, I’ve tried it myself.

I’m guilty of the same sin, hewing out broken cisterns that would not hold water. A man dying of thrist has eyes for only one thing. A man dying of hunger is not distracted by a sign with food on it, since it is only a picture and not the real thing with which he can eat and save his life.

So it is with God.

Our souls were designed to be nourished from His mere presence.

Psalm 73:25-28 “Whom have I in heaven but you?  And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides you. My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.

For behold, those who are far from you shall perish;  you put an end to everyone who is unfaithful to you. But for me it is good to be near God;  I have made the Lord God my refuge, that I may tell of all your works.”

He is the only One that can truly revive our dead souls. And when we hunger we are meant like trees to soak up His love, His grace, and His Light.

Psalm 1:1-4 “Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers; but his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night.

He is like a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither.
In all that he does, he prospers. The wicked are not so, but are like chaff that the wind drives away.”

The fact remains… Many do not know Him in this way.

They still exchange the Glory of God, for lesser things. They still only see a mare, when they are looking at a unicorn.

Yet, there is a way. God Himself made one.

For if all suffer from this sinfully veiled sight that mistakes the One True God for something or someone He is not, then all must have their sight restored.

Mark 8:22-25 “And they came to Bethsaida. And some people brought to him a blind man and begged him to touch him. And he took the blind man by the hand and led him out of the village, and when he had spit on his eyes and laid his hands on him, he asked him, “Do you see anything?” And he looked up and said, “I see people, but they look like trees, walking.” Then Jesus laid his hands on his eyes again; and he opened his eyes, his sight was restored, and he saw everything clearly.”

Jesus Christ, came to this earth to restore our sight, yes, in this part of the Gospel Jesus restored a man’s physical sight, but the reason He came was to open our heart’s eyes, to allow us to see beyond the veil of our sin to God’s true nature.

After all: Hebrews 1:1-3 “Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world. He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power. After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high.”

Jesus shows us who God is because He Himself is God in human flesh. And He came to make purification for sins with His own blood, to become our Spotless Lamb, the only pure sacrifice able to pay the debt incurred by our sins.

Romans 3:23-26 “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God's righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.”

So now, through Him we can see again the true beauty before us, the pure white Lamb of God in the Person of Jesus Christ. We cannot mistake Him for anything but Himself. We cannot mistake a unicorn for a mare, something beautiful for something common.

Want me to show you something else in way of parting? Here’s something from Mark’s Gospel, his account of the life of Jesus.

Mark 9:2-3 “And after six days Jesus took with him Peter and James and John, and led them up a high mountain by themselves. And he was transfigured before them, and his clothes became radiant, intensely white, as no one on earth could bleach them.“

His clothes became radiant white… Sounds familiar doesn’t it?

Blessed with True Sight to see Him as He is,

--The Scribe