Augustine captures something subtle here: faith isn't mere wishful thinking or blind obedience, but a particular kind of vision that precedes ordinary sight. The paradox cuts deeper than it first appears—he's suggesting that belief actually *reshapes* what becomes visible to us, that a mother's faith in her estranged son's capacity for change might literally allow her to perceive his small gestures of redemption where another observer sees only continued selfishness. The reward isn't God suddenly proving faith correct from the outside, but rather faith training the eye itself, making the invisible landscape of meaning and possibility finally perceptible to the believer.