trevCloud1

 

“Then I said, Behold, I come; In the scroll of the book it is written of Me” (Psalm 40:7 NKJV).

Over our morning cup of coffee Greg and I read an Orange County Register article with the title, “Do You See What They See?”

In this article, a mother and daughter from Irvine claimed to see the face of Jesus on the plum-colored armchair in the living room. They then handed out photographs by the hundreds. “Everybody has a purpose”, said the mother Judith, “and I truly believe this has been the purpose for our lives.”

At first, I was amused and then, intrigued. “The purpose of their lives? To hand out photographs taken of a purple chair with a shady image that looked like an image of Jesus?”

It reminded me of a Peanuts cartoon in the newspaper:

Lucy: “Aren’t the clouds beautiful? They look like big balls of cotton. I could just lie here all day and watch them drift by. If you use your imagination, you can see lots of things in the cloud’s formations. What do you think you see, Linus?”

Linus: “Well, those clouds to me look like the map of British Honduras on the Caribbean. That cloud up there looks a little like the profile of Thomas Eakins, the famous painter and sculptor. And that group of clouds over there gives me the impression of the Stoning of Stephen. I can see the Apostle Paul standing there to one side.”

Lucy: “Uh huh. That’s very good. What do you see in the clouds, Charlie Brown?”

Charlie Brown: “Well… I was going to say I saw a ducky and a horsey… but I changed my mind.”

I guess some of us have a better imagination than others. But hopefully, we recognize the difference between an active imagination and faith. Are we so desperate to hear from God and to know God has visited us? Has He left us with such meager evidence, that it could come down to a purple chair in Irvine?

Listen to me girls; God has spoken to us in His Word. 1 John 1:1-2 proclaims, “That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at and our hands have touched-this we proclaim concerning the Word of life. The life appeared; we have seen it and testify to it, and we proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and has appeared to us.” (NIV)

We “see” Jesus as we behold Him revealed in the Scriptures. What we need to do is to read with comprehension what has been recorded for us in God’s word and leave our playful imagination for the clouds.

“Blessed are those who have not seen and yet believe.” What do you see when you read the scriptures?