Seeing!

I caught a glimpse of something on my face, and I leaned in to check. What I saw shocked me.

I saw my face close-up, not over the bathroom sink a few feet back, and I actually looked for longer than two seconds. Who was this person staring back at me?

I was looking in the mirror at a man who was completely unfamiliar to me. I gasped and said, “Oh my god, is that what I look like?” Not that I was comparing it to some mental image of what I should look like, or what I thought I looked like.

If I had not been looking in a mirror and you asked me what I looked like, I could easily rattle off my driving license details: height, weight, hair, and eye color. But I could not have brought to mind an actual likeness of myself. It was startling when it happened, though in a way it made me laugh.

I'm not talking about anything deep or philosophical. I'm talking about literally looking at yourself in the mirror, and thinking that the person you see looks different than what you feel like you would look like.

Sure, every day I look briefly in the mirror when I brush my teeth and comb my hair but I am usually thinking more about the day ahead of me and what I need to get done. After all, I know what I look like, don’t I?

But apparently I was not as familiar with my own self as I had imagined.

Because I saw someone totally different than who I usually see.

After I pondered who I was for a few moments, I then turned my thoughts to what other people see when they look at me.

When my wife or my children look at me, who do they see?

When my friends or even a stranger looks at me, who do they see?

Would their answers be similar to mine when I think about the person I see when I look in the mirror?

In the gospels, between the resurrection and the ascension, the Lord appeared many times to his disciples and others. Sometimes he was recognized. Other times he was not. In what form was he during these appearances and why didn’t they recognize him when they had spent so much time with him before? They recognized him after he revealed the paschal mystery to them.

It isn't a matter of our not being allowed to see God or Jesus. The simple fact is that as material beings we're so far spiritually removed from the actual presence of God that we will have to wait until the far distant future to stand before him. Until that time, we'll still be able to see the evidence of God's existence any time we desire.

We all know that words can’t do justice to the awe and wonder of the natural world. Whether it’s the depth of the blue sea, the power packed into a hurricane, or the colorful hues of a sunset, there is something beautiful and striking about the world in which we live. There’s nothing like laying down at night and looking up at the stars in wonder! Hiding behind all this raw beauty is an even more impressive truth: the universe in which we live is finely tuned, perfectly balanced to be a hospitable environment for mankind and this can hardly be an accident.

Scientists have discovered that if the force of gravity were even slightly different in one direction, the sun would burn too hot for the earth to survive as a life-sustaining planet. Just how precise does the force of gravity need to be in order to make it possible for there to be life on earth? If it were off by just one part in 1040(a 10 with 40 zeros after it), that would mean no sun and, therefore, no earth.

Rest assured that, when we are ready, many eons from now, we will be prepared to stand in God's presence, and on the way, we'll meet Jesus face-to-face, too. But right now, we have to rely on the eyes of faith to appreciate our heavenly Father.

Someone asked me once, “If you can’t see God, why do you believe he exists?” I am not sure I was able to give them the answer that I would give today. Perhaps you are a skeptic, or maybe you are like me and you just weren’t sure.

My path to faith did not come by reading an essay presenting rational arguments for God’s existence and love. My faith in God came after I knew with my mind and felt in my heart that something was not right with the world and I needed to find answers. As a tiny creature in a vast universe I was calling out for answers, answers that mattered more than the next paycheck or ballgame. To my surprise, God came to me through his Word. A God who was willing to overlook all of my faults and still love me. A God who wishes us to seek Him. A God who loves us so much, He would rather die than risk spending eternity without us. This is the God I found when I heard His Word.

All the arguments of the finest philosophers will never lead the skeptic to know God until he realizes he’s deaf and blind. I once was deaf but now I hear the words of God, I once was blind but now I see. I may not recognize myself in a mirror, but I do recognize the awe and wonder of our world does not happen by chance.

By God’s grace, I believe in a God whom I cannot see, at least not yet.