“Desserts are the punctuation marks of the meal.” -Alex Guarnaschelli, American Chef,TV host

In a restaurant they often bring a dessert tray at the end of a meal and describe each in detail. I sometimes wonder if it is Screwtape balancing the platter in front of me. 

Sight is the doorway desire often walks through.

The eyes do not just register what is there—they awaken imagination. Eve saw the fruit was “pleasing to the eye,” and in that moment, curiosity joined longing. 

When something is not seen, it stays abstract. But once it is before us—glittering—it speaks to the body as much as the mind. Temptation thrives on proximity. Our senses can become highways for want—zoom zoom, apple pie.

That is why Scripture warns about the gaze. “I will set no worthless thing before my eyes,” says Psalm 101:3. Not because beauty is evil, but because unguarded seeing can pull love off its proper axis.

The spiritual charge is not blindness—it is discernment. To learn how to look without grasping, to behold without coveting. 

In 1950, about 9% of homes had a TV. By 1960, it was up to 65%. Today, most homes have multiple screens for visual delight. Television changed the American buyer from a shopper of goods into a participant in stories: The Marlboro Man, the Coca-Cola Santa, Apple’s Apple.  These images attach emotion to product long before slogans do—an optic conversation about desire. The antenna became cable, which is now a stream of easily downloaded depictions of violence, exaggeration, escapism, and spectacle. America buys it frame by frame. 

Imagery captivates faster than words. Satan likes to keep us amused, so we will not be awakened. Christians risk being framed if they forget the unseen reality of God. 

Back to the dessert tray. “Mr. Screwtape, I will take the molten buttercake.

“Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen…Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear”. -Heb. 11:1,3

Prayer: 

Heavenly Father, 

I declare loyalty to my Lord Jesus Christ, triumphing over all things, who is the firstborn over all creation; all things have been created through him, visible and invisible, all things have been created through him and for him. He is before all things and holds all things together. Amen  (from Colossians 1)