The Architect Who Sketched a Room She Had Never Seen

In 2019, a young couple in Asheville, North Carolina, hired architect Dana Morales to design their first home. During the initial consultation, they handed over a rough wish list — three bedrooms, an open kitchen, a reading nook. Standard requests.

But when Dana presented her first draft two weeks later, the wife began to cry. There, tucked into the northeast corner of the second floor, was a small studio with angled skylights and a deep utility sink — a pottery studio. The wife had been a ceramicist in college but had never mentioned it. She had given it up years ago, convinced no one took it seriously.

Dana had noticed the clay residue under her fingernails. She had seen the calluses on her thumbs. She had spotted the one piece of art in their apartment — a handmade stoneware bowl on the mantel. "I could see who you were before you told me," Dana said simply.

That is what Nathanael experienced beneath the fig tree. Before Philip ever spoke his name, before he ever walked toward Jesus of Nazareth, he had already been seen. Not glanced at — truly seen. Jesus looked at him and named what was real: "Here is a true Israelite, in whom there is no deceit."

The Most High does not wait for our introductions. He reads the clay under our fingernails. He knows the calling we abandoned and the prayers we thought no one heard. He sees us before we come, and He calls us anyway.