Life Through the Lens: Seeing and believing

This post is the author’s personal opinion.

On May 17, CNN’s Clare Foran reported that:

Key lawmakers warned at a house hearing on Tuesday that unidentified aerial phenomena – popularly known as UFOs – must be investigated and taken seriously as a potential threat to national security. The event marked the first congressional public hearing on UFOs in decades, a high-profile moment for a controversial topic that has long been relegated to the fringes of public policy.

The UFO pictured above I photographed in the Riverland area on March 4.

If you believe that you’ll believe anything.

The UFOs in my photo are merely lights reflecting in a high window, but when I first noticed them, for a moment I did think, “What is that?”

Is seeing always believing?

How often do we see and still not believe?

How often do we choose not to see?

How often do our preconceived ideas stop us from actually seeing?

Jesus’ followers, the disciples, had this problem.

After seeing Jesus in action – showing love to the unloveable, healing the sick and befriending the lonely – they still asked, “Lord, show us the father and that will be enough for us”.

Jesus answered, in John 14:8-9: “Don’t you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time?”

“Anyone who has seen me has seen the father.

“How can you say, ‘Show us the father’?”

These men could not recognise God in Jesus.

Blinded by their own ideas of how God would provide a sword-swinging warrior, a saviour who would drive the Romans out of their country.

A quietly-spoken son of a carpenter who poured out love and taught forgiveness was unbelievable.

We can learn about this forgiving Jesus as the son of a forgiving God.

But it means believing the unbelievable.

It means letting this forgiving God work faith in us, faith in the unseen.

How often do we believe because of the authenticity and character of the teller, and at other times refuse to believe and demand “I have to see to believe”?

Maybe we who call ourselves followers of Jesus today, need to be more authentic in our words and actions so others can say, “I have seen the love of Jesus, the care of Jesus, the forgiveness of Jesus and with the help of the forgiving God, I believe”.

May we all, believers and searchers, be more open to the leading of a loving, forgiving God, so we can all say, “I may not have seen, but I do believe”.

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