“And I will give you treasures hidden in the darkness—
secret riches.
I will do this so you may know that I am the LORD,
the God of Israel, the one who calls you by name.” — Isaiah 45:3 (NLT)

Suffering, in all its various forms, is a universal human experience. While there often isn’t an answer to the question why suffering exists, there are many answers to how we can respond to the suffering of others. Our devotions explore how God comforts us, and how we can comfort others in times of suffering.

It is a natural human reflex to squint or shut one’s eyes when in pain. Similarly, we wince when we are faced with unbearable experiences, and we tend to close out the world around us. Rabbi Nachman of Breslov, the renowned 18^th-century Ukrainian teacher, taught that this reflex has a powerful message for us.

Our eyes are the vehicle through which we bring objects outside of us into our brain. We call this process “seeing.” But sometimes, we can’t see. If something passes by us very quickly, we won’t be able to see it. The eyes don’t have enough time to process and send the image to the brain.

Another time we have difficulty seeing is when an object is very far away. When this happens, our vision is diffused over a lot of space and it doesn’t have the power to bring the image into the brain. To solve this problem, we squint. By closing our eyes to things on the periphery, we are able to concentrate all our visual capacity on the object we want to see and our vision extends farther.

Rabbi Nachman taught that this same principle applies when we are going through emotional or spiritual pain. When we are going through challenges or difficulties, we want to see the whole picture, the end of the story. We want to see that everything God does is for our best. We want to be able to see that all the pain we are experiencing is for a good purpose.

But how do we attain such a perspective when we are in the midst of deep pain?

We close our eyes.

Sometimes we only need to “squint.” We need to shut out the things that don’t really matter in life in order to see what really does. Often this partial blinding is enough for us to see that all is good. However, other times, we must completely close our eyes to the physical world so that we can focus on non-physical matters. In this space, we can see the beauty and light in our situation that we couldn’t see with our eyes open wide.

In the book of Isaiah we read: “And I will give you treasures hidden in the darkness—secret riches.” There are some treasures that we can only attain in the darkness; some riches we can only find in hidden places. When we go through challenging times – or even in good times – if we are able to close our eyes to the material world and gain an invaluable perspective on the truly important aspects of life, then we will be truly blessed. Having that clarity through life is one of the greatest treasures we can ever receive.