Eyes to See

We have a small wood plaque on the wall in our home. It is a piece of recycled pallet. The length is about from your wrist to your fingertips. The nail holes are still visible on one side, it’s sanded, stained and varnished. There seems to be black lettering carved into the wood, and it puzzles people. It’s always there; we never take down.

Most people see it and ask, “What is that, some kind of abstract piece of art or ancient text?” If you look at it quickly, it does resemble some kind of foreign letters carved on a piece of wood.

It’s an interesting optical illusion that sooner or later it comes up in conversation. Once someone takes it down and actually shows them the letters, it’s very clear. Most people focus too much on the black spaces, which is actually the space around the letters. It is the name “JESUS”.

Here's another example of the same type of optical illusion-->

What I find so curious is how easily some recognize it, and others still find it a challenge to see the letters at all, even after you show them. They keep trying to make sense of the dark space around the letters, instead of the actual letters themselves.

In the same way, I can see how some people consider the man Jesus a puzzle. Some see Him as some abstract thinker who died for nothing. Some see Him as some nice, Jewish Rabbi. And then there are some people don’t want to consider His existence because they can't get past the dark spaces in their lives.

If you sit down and really look at the name, study what He said, listen to the words of several witnesses, you might be surprised how much better you can “see” Him. He’s in the background of every conversation, waiting to be discussed. It’s all in the way you look at Him.

Do you consider Jesus a puzzle or the solution? John 20:29-31