This week we begin a new sermon series on Moses. In the book of Exodus, Moses’ and the Israelites’ world is turned completely upside down. They are disoriented and exposed and consistently waffle between disobedience and repentance. Sound familiar these days?

At times even Moses stumbled. Yet, we’re told that in his old age, Moses’ “eyes did not grow dim” (Deut. 34:7).

Even though I am sure that means he literally had good eyesight, it also reminds me of a spiritual truth. In Matthew 6, Jesus talks about storing treasures “in heaven” rather than on this diminishing earth. Then he says, “The eye is the lamp of the body. If your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light.”  When we store all our deepest hope, confidence, and security in Jesus—when we fix our eyes on Jesus—our eyes are full of light.

You don’t need me to remind you how very difficult this can be. There is too much noise. There is too much going on in our world, and in our very minds, for us to easily affix our attention in any one place. How much more our current circumstances have magnified this simple reality!

I need a place to rest. I am longing to really fix my eyes on Jesus, to learn how to store up all my treasure in Him.

Here are a few things I am finding particularly helpful in this season: listening to certain worship songs on repeat (this week it’s “His Mercy is More”), thinking through scripture (this week it is Psalm 78), reading books that capture my imagination (yes, I just read Lord of the Rings, AGAIN) and books that anchor me to truth (lately Mere Christianity and The Divine Conspiracy), and carving out a few quiet mornings a week to do these things or to just go for a walk. Jesus working through these things together is helping me to fix my eyes on Him again and again.

Our gatherings together have always been an essential part of how I hear from and experience God. It has been so hard to be apart. I have been praying for us all – that our faith is preserved, and that, as we begin to gather together and share what God is doing in and around us, our faith is strengthened because we see that the same Jesus has been and is still at work in all of us.

I continue to pray that as we behold Jesus, the words of that old hymn come true: that it is not our eyes but “the things of the world [that] grow strangely dim, in the light of his glory and grace.”

(by Jenny Behrens, Life Group Coordinator in Mission)