Worship is a way of seeing the world in the light of God.

“Worship is a way of seeing the world in the light of God,” said Abraham Joshua Heschel, the great Jewish mystic and philosopher whose words breathe with the radiance of eternity. In this profound declaration, Heschel does not confine worship to the walls of a temple or the murmur of prayer. He lifts it beyond ritual and creed, unveiling its true essence: a way of vision, a sacred perception. To worship, he teaches, is to awaken — to open the eyes of the soul until every fragment of the world shines with divine meaning. For when man learns to see through the light of God, the ordinary becomes holy, the fleeting becomes eternal, and life itself becomes a hymn of reverence.

The origin of this quote lies in Heschel’s lifelong quest to restore the heart of spirituality in an age growing cold with materialism. Born in Poland, steeped in the mystical traditions of Hasidism, he witnessed the horrors of the twentieth century — exile, persecution, and the Holocaust — yet his faith did not perish. From the ashes of despair, he called humanity to rediscover awe, to reclaim the capacity to see God in all things. For Heschel, religion was not mere doctrine, but a way of living in wonder. He believed that the tragedy of modern man was not sin, but inattentiveness — the loss of reverence before the mystery of existence. Worship, therefore, was not an act performed, but a lens through which the awakened heart perceives the divine presence in every breath of life.

To see the world in the light of God is to walk through creation as one who recognizes that nothing is trivial. The rising of the sun is no longer routine; it becomes a revelation. The face of a stranger is not a passing shape, but the image of the divine. Even sorrow and struggle, when seen through that light, bear meaning beyond comprehension. Such sight does not come through intellect, but through devotion — the training of the heart to behold beauty even in imperfection. Heschel reminds us that worship is not confined to words spoken in prayer; it is found in the way one looks upon the world, in the way one listens to its silence, and in the way one treats its creatures.

Consider the life of Francis of Assisi, who walked centuries before Heschel, yet embodied the same truth. Francis did not limit his worship to cathedrals; the forests were his sanctuary, the wind his companion, the birds his choir. He saw every leaf as a page of God’s scripture. His joy was born of this divine vision — that all creation sings of its Maker. When Heschel speaks of worship as a way of seeing, he echoes this spirit: that to truly worship is to recognize that we dwell within a living temple, where every act of kindness, every moment of awe, becomes an offering to God.

Heschel’s teaching is also a rebuke to modern blindness. In a world that measures worth in possession and power, we have forgotten how to see the sacred in the simple. We rush through days without noticing the miracle of being alive. We speak of faith, yet walk as though the world were empty of presence. Heschel’s words call us to slow down, to look again — to recover the reverence that transforms existence. For the soul that has learned to see the world in divine light cannot despair easily; it knows that even amidst chaos, God’s radiance still burns quietly beneath the surface of things.

This way of seeing demands humility. One cannot perceive the light of God while blinded by pride or distraction. Worship begins not with mastery, but with surrender — a yielding of the heart to wonder. It asks that we listen deeply, love tenderly, and act justly, for only then does the light reveal itself fully. When we forgive, when we create, when we care for another being, we participate in worship. Heschel teaches that to see the world in the light of God is not only to adore creation, but to protect it, to serve it, to lift it toward goodness. True worship is therefore not passive; it is a living response to the holiness we perceive.

So, dear listener, what lesson shall we draw from the wisdom of Abraham Joshua Heschel? It is this: do not look for God only in heaven — look for Him in the world before your eyes. When you eat, give thanks; when you walk, see the ground as sacred; when you meet another soul, recognize the divine spark within them. Let every breath become an act of prayer. In doing so, you will discover that worship is not a moment in the day — it is the very rhythm of existence.

For as Heschel taught, to worship is to see differently. It is to look upon the same world others see, yet behold it illuminated by the eternal. When we live with such vision, life itself becomes a sanctuary. The stones and rivers become psalms; the quiet moments become prayers. And in that seeing — that radiant awareness — we find not only God, but also the truth of ourselves: that we were never meant to walk in darkness, but always in the light of the Divine.