I need a window, God.

The future stretches out before me but I can't see what it holds.  My vision is limited by the knothole view I have of today. I can see a few facts; a few tentative opportunities.  But I can't see much.  I see pain associated with change.  My knothole doesn't let me see much beyond that.  It is too earthly of a perspective to reveal much more than today.

Even voices are distorted by the tiny opening. I can't hear what they are saying.  Are they calling me?

I crouch,peering out of my tiny knothole, squinting to see beyond my narrowed view.  A child presses in against me, her grasping hand satisfied with my skirt.  Ain't nothing gonna hurt her if Mama is here.

I feel her there. And my knothole view reveals tears.  Her tears.  Her world is easily shattered and I don't know that I can put it back together again if I allow change to break it apart.

I need a window, God.

Fling back the shutters to reveal Your perfect will.

Let me gaze through the window of heavenly perspective where change is loaded with blessing.  Tears when revealed through His open window aren't tears at all, but jewels that glitter on her cheeks and shape her, strengthening her beauty-- my own beauty, because my cheeks are wet, too.

The opened window doesn't give miraculous revelations detailing my future, but my vision is no longer the hazy shapes as seen from the knothole.  Those shapes are revealed to be glory moments and times when He was there.  I press into Him.  Ain't nothing gonna hurt me if I'm with Him.

I hear the voices clearly now.  They are fellow Window People, calling out words of faith and praise. Their world has come alive.   They tell of triumph and victory.  They speak of life that springs from death and joy beyond the Cross.  They encourage each other on.

They inspire me until I'm through with the Knotholer's view of Your will.

The knothole reveals the pain of change; the un-shuttered window shows glory and reward.  The knothole tunnels my vision onto myself and my immediate surroundings; the window give me the ability to look beyond, to see Your will is the only place in the world I want to be.  The knothole only shows the dying required of me; the window shows life that is to come, for out of death springs life.

I need a window, God, so I can truly see.