I read a story the other day about a man who moved with his family to Hawaii. As a means of earning a living, he started diving for squid with some local divers. He was not very successful though, and pretty soon became despondent. With each dive the local divers caught a couple of squid, bit he just could not find any. It was as if the squid was avoiding him completely, but not the other divers!

After a week he was just about giving up. One of the locals sat down with him on the beach and asked why he seemed so upset.

“Why is there no squid when I dive, but all of you catch some every single time you go down?”

The local man smiled, and responded: “There is always squid…plenty of them. You just do not have ‘squid eye’…”

“What is ‘squid eye’?” he asked.

The Hawaiian smiled. “Squid eye is your ability to see the squid in its natural habitat. To see it there where the squid lives, and you don’t…”

The local went on the explain certain traits of squid in its natural environment, and then dove with the man and showed him with his experience how to see the squid underwater. The man became successful at diving squid from that point on.

This story made me think how we mostly do not see Jesus in His natural habitat, because we do not have ‘Jesus Eye.’ We do not see Jesus in the real world. We expect Him to look tamed and comfortably religious in churches and where ever we need Him to be. But Jesus has been out of place since the start. That’s why the religious folks murdered Him 2000 years ago. They did not like the image of Jesus, as He did not fit their mold. They did not have ‘Jesus Eye.’

Practice your ‘Jesus Eye’ for a while. Try seeing Him where and when you expect Him least. He might just surprise you…

We’ve just passed Valentine’s Day. Me and my wife never really take notice of Valentine’s Day. This year, we actually thought about going away for the day, but in the end just being home and having a quiet Sunday won hands down.

A couple of days later, my eldest — about to turn thirteen — out of the blue asked us when we sat together before dinner: “Are you guys still in love?”

True to her female side, my wife immediately replied: “Of course yes!”

True to my male side, I replied: “Of course not.”

Oops. The stares burned holes through my being.

I tried to recover with an innocent question: “What do you mean with ‘in love’?”

“Well, do you feel awkward when you see each other, and think about each other all the time when you are apart?”

“Nope,” I replied. My wife’s glance prompted a swift response.

“You are referring to being in love, yes. But we’re past that. We simply love each other. The difference is this: We do not feel awkward when we see each other, but when we don’t see each other. And we do not think of each other all the time when we are apart, but when we are together, we think ahead about not being together…”

“Sweet…” replied my teenage daughter. My wife’s smile confirmed my recovery.

Afterward I thought about what I said (a typical male, I know). And I realized that it actually makes a lot of sense, and that it’s true. Loving someone turns the table from being ‘in love’. Being together becomes the norm, and being apart becomes the weird part.

I think being in love is the lift-off that the spaceship needs. But staying the course on the long journey in space is what makes it all worthwhile.