Do you not see the hand of the Lord?

Sometimes we have trouble seeing the hand of the Lord in the things that are happening to us or around us: life may seem too difficult, too confusing, or too uncertain.

In today’s first reading, Elijah prophesies and then tells a young person to look physically for its fulfillment. When the person sees nothing, Elijah says to look and look again. Seven times Elijah says to look: a symbolic number that indicates the young person should be looking continually.

For his part, Elijah doesn’t look at all – he doesn’t need to. He knows the hand of the Lord is upon him and when the time comes, wondrous things happen.

As for us, there are times when we very much would like to see the hand of the Lord in our lives. Elijah’s message to us is “Go! Look again!”

We may not see it right away, we may not see it for a very long time, but we will.

And when we, like Elijah, see the hand of the Lord at work in our lives, then even more wondrous things can and will happen