Have you noticed the steady stream of news stories recently about people seeing what they interpret as “holy” images etched, hatched, birthed and baked on all kinds of unusual things?
One lady, for example, is dead sure she can see the face of Jesus on her iron. This snagged her a two-minute gig on the T.V. news. The woman said she is currently going through a hard time and the image on her iron is pulling her through. Okay, then.
Another lady appeared on the news with a pancake that has, she said, the face of the Virgin Mary on it. This woman is keeping her holy flapjack in the freezer so she can pull it out and be encouraged anytime she needs a lift.
Then there’s the farmer whose hen laid an egg that has a crinkly cross on the end of it. That egg is not going to end up in an omelet, I can tell you that. The farmer is thinking about selling it on EBay to someone who finds that sort of thing inspiring. Who knew there were so many potential customers?
Shall we proceed? Okay, let’s.
A dairy farmer in Connecticut has a Holstein heifer that recently birthed a calf, dubbed the “holy cow” or “divine bovine,” with a white marking on its head “in the approximate shape of a cross.” According to the article, “the farmer said he thinks the marking may be a message from above, though he’s still trying to figure out what that message might be.”
Um…I’m thinking if God really wants to communicate a “message from above,” we won’t be left wondering what that message is. And He probably won’t have to communicate it through an iron or a pancake or an egg or a cow, holy or not.
As a matter of fact, here’s something newsworthy – God HAS already spoken to us, in His word and through His son, Jesus. As it says in Hebrews 1:1-2: “God… in these last days has spoken to us in His son, whom He appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the world.”
That passage in Hebrews goes on to say that Jesus is “exact representation of His (God’s) nature.” So, hello, if we’re looking to hear from God, there He is — right there in Jesus, right there on the pages of the Bible. His character is described, His personality is revealed, His power is demonstrated, and His desires are expressed.
My oldest son came over awhile back to make some toast and to borrow our fancy digital camera. When the toast was ready, Ryan laid it on the kitchen table and started taking pictures of it. Hmmmm, that’s a bit weird, I thought, even though weird is more often the rule than the exception around the Crum house.
Turns out Ryan needed a high-quality picture of a piece of toast for a computer application he was writing to sell to owners of I-Phones. The application would enable folks to superimpose an image of their face over the toast picture. He, like me, was poking a bit of fun at all this hoopla over people seeing heavenly images on mundane objects.
No doubt God loves to reveal Himself to those who honestly seek Him. He wants to be found by us and He can show up anyway, anytime, anywhere He wants to.
But we’d be wise to look to His Word for His encouragement, instruction and inspiration, for it’s a sure thing — we’ll always find Him there.