LOOKING
FOR JESUS?
“And
the Word became flesh and made His dwelling
among us. We have seen His glory, the glory of the
One and Only,
who came from the Father, full of
Grace and
truth.” John
Our local newspaper recently reported the finding of a likeness of Jesus’
face on the surface of a corn tortilla.
I confess that I did not join the throng gathered to view this
phenomenon. However, I did closely examine a picture of it that appeared in the
newspaper and I would suggest that it would take a lot of imagination to
identify His or any other image. To
me it appeared to be a corn tortilla with several scorched spots but I think
that believing it was authentic does say something real about how we do or do
not see Jesus when He maybe is right in our midst.
Sometimes it seems like we want a spectacular sign like the ancient
Israelites had with their cloud by day and pillar of fire by night and we forget
about how He accompanied Cleopas and his companion along the way to Emmaus. They failed to recognize His presence as
they were too upset by the events of the previous week and further, they did not
expect to see Him. Maybe we like
Cleopas and his companion need our eyes opened (Luke 24:31) so we can see Him at
work in our lives and the lives of others.
Consider how Mary Magdalene was unable to see Him as her eyes were filled
with tears (John
Why does He often seem so difficult to find and so impossibly far
away? Might it be that we become so
involved in our trivial daily tasks that they become the only things that we
focus on? Maybe we do not sense His
presence, as we really do not expect to see Him except in the spectacular and
search for Him in corn tortillas rather in everyday
life.
One writer reported that the early Christians developed the practice of
each evening prayerfully going back over the day, looking for where the Lord’s
presence and guidance had been with them.
Should we, like them, work to sensitize ourselves to recognize signs of
his presence in the ordinary events of our life?