The Image of Christ

Faith is an individual matter and should be treated as such. I respect that.

What I am having trouble with is the sign-seeking that seems to be filling the airwaves and online communities with images of Jesus in everything from pancakes to plywood.

I firmly and with all that I have in me believe that God moves in mysterious ways, but I'm not too sure that he intended for the image of His Only Begotten to be 'discovered' in a Cheetos.

Recently, the 'image' of Christ and the Madonna on a grilled cheese sandwich was sold on E-bay to a gambling house. My, what a contrast. The sacred against the profane in all of its detail and bias.

I just watched a snippet of newsworthy information about how a family had 'discovered' the 'image' of Jesus Christ in a shroud in the fur of a kitten in their home.

While photo enhancement shows us what THEY are seeing, what I am failing to see in all of these remarkable viewings of Christ in the marble, the plywood and the sandwich is these same people seeing Christ in the people around them.

Those people who reflect His image in their countenance are not in short supply. They are everywhere. It's that man who helped you pick up the contents of your purse when you slipped in the rain and dropped your possessions everywhere. It's the woman at the market who never misses the chance to ask about your family and who knows you by name even if you don't know hers. It's that teen who stops to let you in even though traffic is backed up for miles and no one else stopped.

The image of His love is made manifest in everything from a newborn baby smiling at the world for the first time to the beauty of the woman who is withered and wrinkled by time that sells the garden fresh tomatoes in the gas station parking lot.

The image of Christ is in the face of all those who have willingly taken His name upon themselves through the cleansing waters of baptism. It shines in and through them. It is the image of love in action.

I don't require an artifact of physical properties in order to see my Savior. I don't believe those images that may or may not be on these various objects has any real power. They don't lack for the ability to attract a splashy sort of attention. But what they DO lack is substance.

Miracles are nice. Miracles can indeed be heaven sent. But miracles alone cannot convert because they are fleeting. And the way that people seek after them sort of make me wonder why we can't be happy with the things of God in our daily life that bear only the marks of His Love upon them and no direct image.

It won't be any time at all before someone 'discovers' the 'image' of Christ in a leaf or a piece of shredded carrot or some other substitute for faith. Because that is what we are talking about. Substitutions.

Just like a substitute teacher, it may be adequate for a moment or two, but it truly isn't the same thing.

Our job, it seems to me, is to be willing to take on faith that our Savior will not present himself to the world as a piece of broccoli or the swirls in some prosciutto ham. I have the feeling that those types of 'manifestations' are not what He has in mind for us at all.

Instead, we rely on our faith, knowing that some things just have to come in the 'own due time of the Lord' and not on our timetable. We can't see the beginning from the end and know everything because we have a whim to know it all. That is an earned privelege for the faithful who patiently endure until the time of judgement and rewards comes. And I believe at that time those who have fufilled the measure of their creation WILL see the Savior. He will not be ham or grilled cheese or Cheetos.

He will be divine, whole and totally marked by the scars of just what He bore for us as individual children of God and brothers and sisters for whom He willingly gave all just to save us from hell if we would only come unto Him.

And at that time, we will know Him for who He really is. And we will require substitutes no longer, for our Savior will be before our eyes. The image will become the reality and we will be face to face with the Risen Lord.

There is a song, which I love to sing, called "His Image In Your Countenance". In those words it says 'with no apparent beauty that man should him desire' - unlike these objects which are only substitutes for truth that sell to the highest bidder like so much bologna in the market square.

We won't desire Him in that fashion because He will not come to be popular. Instead He comes to offer salvation, which has a price. It is a price He paid for us in full and with willingness in order that we could choose to return home or choose to damn ourselves through our wicked and willful choices.

And understanding that we are the ones who stand in the way of our own eternal goals is a painful reminder that God never forces His will on us and that Jesus Christ will not magically make us worthy to enter into the kingdom. Instead, we determine how we receive the One who did all for us.

There is a painting that shows Christ knocking upon the door. He stands there and knocks because there is NO KNOB on His side of the door. Unlike the world, Christ will not kick down the door and let Himself in. He will not hold us hostage to His desires for us to make wise choices, but has shed His very life's blood so that the penalty for our poor choices will not be fully laid upon us if we seek His mercy and God's forgiveness.

Because I totally rely on both mercy and justice, I can't believe that either could come from any peice of granite or from a pancake or some other random flecks or swirls in the world. Christ is not an anomoly, He is the literal Son of God. And that is the best thing for me. I can't possibly make up for all that I mess up on my own because I am still learning how to be responsible and make good decisions.

So I need an Elder Brother and Savior who can stand between me and the reality of my circumstances when I have fallen short. At times when I stand convicted, helpless and guilty, I need a Savior not a grilled cheese. I need a Friend, not a patch of random fur. At these times in my life I need an Advocate who can speak for me and make things better.

I seek to someday be worthy to see not just the image of Christ, but to see Christ Himself.

It isn't the image that is important. It's the salvation.