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This devotional address entitled, Lift Up Thine Eyes, Miracles, Large and Small,

was given on December 12th of 1995 by Rex E. and Janet G. Lee, then president, and wife of the president,

of Brigham Young University.

A couple of weeks ago, our family watched a Christmas movie together, after which our four-year-old grandson, Alex, turned wide-eyed to his mother and asked, do I believe in Santa

Claus? I had two reactions to his honest question. One was the realization of the

dependency a young child has on his parents for the establishment of his beliefs. The other was

a reaction of the vast difference between the miraculous in fantasy and the miraculous in reality.

On the one hand, the more information a child gathers, the more preposterous fantasy becomes,

except to take its proper place in entertainment and imaginative play.

On the other hand, the more informed we become, and the more

experiences with the spirit we have in this life, the more we understand the realities of

eternal truth. Time and knowledge work to dispute fantasy, but the test of time only

enhances what is real.

Reason is not, of course, the only avenue by which we gain understanding.

Our toolkit of learning is half empty, unless it also includes faith.

I love Paul's definition.

Faith is the substance of things hoped for the evidence of not that things

not seen. President Benson has put that to practical application when he instructed us. Our

inability to explain a thing does not disprove its reality. Those things which we cannot fully

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