I SPY WITH MY LITTLE EYE

Did you ever play that game?

I loved it.

I played it as a kid, and I played it as a mom.

It passed the time on long car trips.  It provided a distraction to stop fighting. It was a wonderful mental exercise.  It fostered creative thinking and problem-solving.

OK, let's admit it, it was just plain fun.

In some ways, I still play.

You see, I have this propensity to *see* faces.  (Not in a creepy "Sixth Sense movie" kind of way, mind you).

A lot of people see stuff in clouds.

I do that, too, but I see faces in trees and rocks and floor tiles and wallpaper and buildings and cars.

Don't laugh.

Because more often than not, if I point out my "discovery" to someone else, they see it, too.

I clearly remember one time when I was staying with my youngest son at his apartment.  He has these sticky tiles on his bathroom floor.  After using the facilities one day, I came out and said this:

"Hey, have you ever noticed that you can see Marty in your bathroom floor?"

(Marty is his beagle)

At first he looked at me like maybe I had been breathing sewer gas or something.  But he indulges me, so he finally said:

"Show me."

I did, he saw it, and agreed.  Yup, there was a little "beagle" prancing across the bathroom floor.

I see faces in car grilles – (you know, the headlights are the eyes, the bumper is the mouth).  Buildings have faces – (windows and doors make perfect facial features).  I've occasionally been spooked out by some eerie faces in wallpaper.

But I also see faces in nature.

For instance, on our property we have this big log that used to be part of a tree that fell down years ago.  I think it looks just like a sperm whale.  I've nicknamed it, "Moby Stick."  (I also have a propensity to name inanimate objects, by the way!)  There's a boulder that looks just like another kind of whale.  Its name?  "Rocky Beluga."

I'm not totally crazy.  "The Hub" saw it, too, when I pointed it out.  (Or maybe he's just kind enough to indulge his loony wife!)

So, today as I was getting into my car I actually said good-bye to Moby Stick. But then, I got thinking.  Am I nuts?  (Don't answer that, you guys...)  Yes, probably, but there is something inside of me that loves to "I Spy" stuff.

As I drove off, I started thinking about what makes us do this?  It's probably something in science having to do with the facial recognition processes in our brains, or perhaps psychology could offer an explanation for our tendency to anthropomorphize things.


But, there's a spiritual lesson here, too.

And over the next several minutes, God began to unfold it.


Two points:

One, the reason I see faces in things is because I'm looking for them.  They don't magically appear.  I'm always looking because I'm always half-expecting to find them.

And, in the same way, if we're looking for God, we'll see Him.

Sometimes I've been asked, how did you find a spiritual lesson in that?

And my best answer is – because I was looking for it, and God showed it to me.

You see, the open heart and the seeking eye will always find God.  

It's what He promises:

"You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart." (Jeremiah 29:13, ESV)

Please understand, I am not bragging here.  I'm not saying that I see this stuff because I'm all "lah-di-dah" pious.  And don't get me wrong, there are plenty of times when I feel like God is hidden and silent and distant.

But, I try to make a practice of looking, and searching, and seeking for the Lord in the small things, in everything.  And lo and behold, more times than I can count, He lets me *see* Him.


The other point is this:

If I can see faces in things, and I can find God in things, are people seeing HIM in me?

Do they look at me and see HIS face?

I see faces in things because faces are recognizable by their features.  By the way they resemble the real thing.

Am I that way?

Are my spiritual "features" recognizable as belonging to someone who follows the Lord?  Do I resemble the real thing – Him?

We are called to this, you know.

"So all of us who have had that veil removed can see and reflect the glory of the Lord.  And the Lord – who is the Spirit – makes us more and more like him as we are changed into his glorious image."  (2 Corinthians 3:18, NLT)

"…be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and put on the new self, which in the likeness of God has been created in righteousness and holiness of the truth." (Ephesians 4:23-24, NASB)


I want to be a reflection of Him.

An accurate and true reflection.

Wouldn't it be awesome if people looked at us and said, "Oh, I see the face of the Lord in him/her!"

So, I'm pondering this.  Praying for this.

And learning that the only way to look like Jesus is to walk with Him.  Read about Him.  Talk to Him.

Follow Him ever so closely.


"I spy with my little eye, someone who looks like Jesus."

Oh, how I want that to be said of me!

May I always reflect
the image
of my Lord and Savior.


(This is a wood carving we have in our home...
...do you see the face?!) 

"'Keep on asking, and you will receive what you ask for.  Keep on seeking, and you will find.  Keep on knocking, and the door will be opened to you." 
(Matthew 7:7, NLT)

"But if from there you seek the LORD your God, you will find him if you seek him with all your heart and with all your soul." (Deuteronomy 4:29, NIV)

"Now set your heart and your soul to seek the LORD your God..." 
(1 Chronicles 22:19, NASB)

"...acknowledge the God of your father, and serve him with wholehearted devotion and with a willing mind, for the LORD searches every heart and understands every desire and every thought.  If you seek him, he will be found by you..." (1 Chronicles 28:9, NIV)

"'I will give them a heart to know me, that I am the LORD.  They will be my people, and I will be their God...'" (Jeremiah 24:7, NIV)

"Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us." (2 Corinthians 5:20, ESV)

"And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again." 
(2 Corinthians 5:15, NIV)

"I have been crucified with Christ.  It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me." (Galatians 2:20, ESV)

"He must become greater and greater, and I must become less and less." 
(John 3:30, NLT)



Do people see the face of Jesus in you?



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