The Power of Seeing Differently

I went on a stroll along the Jersey shore one summer with a friend. We took in the sea air, let the waves caress our bare feet, and gazed out on the sand looking for sea shells and other treasures to collect. Every few yards my friend stopped to pick up a piece of sea glass—small cuts of glass that has been ground and polished from the beating waves. Each piece glistened brightly as the sun hit it—greens, blues, whites and ambers. It was a new experience for me, watching her collect the trinkets, for as many times as I had been to the shore I had never noticed them before.

I started to look out ahead for myself to see what I could find—nothing. She must have found the last one, I decided. Then she called out, “Look there’s another one”, pointing a few feet ahead. I looked and saw zero—she must be mistaken. There were only rocks and broken shells, bits of seaweed and lots of sand. But she stepped ahead of me and reached down. I followed her hand and just as she was about to touch the sand, I saw it—a glistening piece of sea glass, as bright and polished as the last. She added it to her collection. How odd, I thought that I couldn’t see it.

With more resolve, I concentrated harder on finding one for myself. I focused my gaze on the sand with real intent. Again, before I could see anything, my friend called out that she found another. And again, I couldn’t see it until she was just about ready to pick it up. My eyes narrowed. Why couldn’t I see any sea glass?

After several more minutes of this I had my first break-through. The sun had caught a piece of glass, reflecting back an amber signal as if to say, “Here I am!” I quickened my pace and almost dove for it—sure enough it was sea glass! Shortly after that, I began to see more and more. Once my eyes were trained to see it, they were opened to a new reality—sea glass was everywhere—I simply needed to “see differently” in order to see it.

Opening our Spiritual Eyes

We often times get complacent in our lives, doing the same mundane routine day after day. We know the story, we go on auto-pilot, or we give in to boredom. Sometimes we just think that what we see is all there is. Then we watch someone, maybe someone walking right next to us, who sees things differently, does things differently, and reaps spiritual and emotional rewards that our untrained eyes can’t see, our naïve mind may not understand. We may decide it’s luck on their part, or a talent they possess that we don’t—something they can have and we cannot. But something inside us tugs at our heart, asks questions, seeks for more knowledge. We may say to ourselves, “I want to have that feeling of peace, that level of comfort, that sense of belonging to something greater than what I am at this moment.” There may even come a time where we begin our own experiment to see if maybe it’s not too late for us.

Before I joined The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, I felt comfortable with my life in many ways, but questions about the nature of God and our relationship with him were always on my mind. I felt there was more to our true relationship with Him—more of a pure parent-child bond—but I didn’t know how to find it. This feeling gripped me for decades until I finally decided to settle it on my own. I set out to find the peace and security I knew in my heart was real. What I found changed my life forever

Spiritual truths that stand the test of time: God is our Father

God is our Spirit Father in Heaven. Before we were born on earth, we were born in spirit and lived as a family with Heavenly Parents. The Bible teaches that all things were made in spirit before they were made on earth—this applies to dwelling with our Heavenly Parents as well. Coming to this knowledge was like seeing that first piece of sea glass—it has always been true even if I hadn’t been able to see it for so long. But having this knowledge was not enough. I needed more, and I needed to find more for myself.

Our Father answers prayers

I learned my Father in Heaven is a loving father, that he would answer prayers. If I did the work, if I read and pondered the truth as I was learning it, and if I prayed to find out directly from Him if what I was learning was true, he would manifest the truth to me. I was not forced into any decision through guilt or fear. I was told directly by the people teaching me, “don’t take our word for it: pray for yourself.” I learned by faith that I was important enough to God that he would answer my seemingly insignificant prayers. It still amazes me to this day that our Heavenly Father, the master architect of the universe, has the power and ability to create things beyond that our most sophisticated scientists and our most educated architects could never create, and yet he has the time, patience, and compassion to answer each and every one of us personally.

Our Father wants us to have what He has

I learned our Father in Heaven lived in a perfect state of purity. He wanted us to reach perfection as well. The only way we could do that was to come to this imperfect world to learn the hard lessons we could not learn in heaven. For instance, how could we learn forgiveness if we are dwelling in a perfect place where no one does anything worthy of forgiveness? How can we learn humility if we are living in a place where we never make the mistake of being prideful? It made perfect sense to me that we needed an imperfect environment to learn to master perfection. And so Heavenly Father’s Plan was for us to come to earth to do just that.

Our Father sent his son, Jesus Christ

I learned that Jesus Christ is our spirit brother. He created this earth under the direction of our Father. He was with the Father before the world began, and he came to this earth to teach us the way to salvation was through love, forgiveness, mercy and obedience. He was divinely born of a mortal mother and spiritual father—the only child on earth to be born this way. This made it so he could perfectly live out his life in purity in order to bridge the gap between heaven and earth so we could cross that bridge and live with our spirit parents again.

Our Father did not leave us alone

I learned that our Father in Heaven and his son Jesus Christ did not leave us alone to fend for ourselves. They bestowed their power and authority—the Holy Priesthood of God—to worthy men to perform the ordinances necessary for us to be clean and spotless enough to dwell in our heavenly home again. They sent holy messengers—prophets and apostles—to guide us along the right path to spiritual salvation. Through the teachings of Jesus Christ, and through the guidance of worthy and honorable priesthood holders, we can continue to learn, to correct our mistakes, and to become more humble and pure—in short to be perfected in Him.

I’ve learned these truths and many more, because I was willing to search diligently for them. And since becoming a member, I’ve experienced rich spiritual blessings that bring me peace of mind and happiness and a sense of purpose beyond what I’ve known before.

It’s just broken glass—or is it?

Finding sea glass that summer took a lot of concentration on my part. Because my friend kept finding it, I knew it was out there. But in order to find it for myself I had to work hard, concentrate and change my way of viewing the shore. I realize now there are unseen treasures that have been there all along. Many people may go to the shore and miss them entirely. They may give up before they succeed. They may think, “It’s just a piece of broken glass.” This is true—but there are spiritual treasures, spiritual truths, surrounding us daily, that far outweigh any treasures we may find at the shore, even all the riches on earth. They are worth finding and holding onto forever, because unlike the trinkets of the earth, they will last forever.

It isn’t easy, but it’s worth it

Spiritually speaking, I know many who have not reaped the blessings of the true gospel of Jesus Christ, simply because they were not interested in knowing the truth, or they were not willing to put in the time and effort to find it. But just as the sea glass can be seen with a discerning eye, so too does the true nature of God and our relationship to him exist. The question remains—do you have the desire to reap the blessings by coming to this knowledge on your own? Do you have the will power to search diligently, to not give up, to not give in to the ways of the world, telling you you’re not worthy of such happiness? It requires effort—but anything worth keeping forever requires effort to obtain today and lasting determination to preserve for tomorrow. Search for the truth, ponder what you learn, and pray to your Heavenly Father to direct you to act. He loves you as much as he loves me. He will open your eyes as he has mine.