Believing What You See

“If I am not doing the works of my Father,

then do not believe me,  but if I do them, even though you do not believe me, believe the works, so that you may know and understand that the Father is me and I am in the Father.”

John 10:38

          “Actions speak louder than words.”  Almost everyone sees the truth in that, because we’ve all known people who are all talk and no follow-through.  They make promises they will not keep, and spout ideals they do not live by; and no one is persuaded by “do what I say and not what I do” rhetoric.  This is especially true for those who claim to speak for God.

          When Jesus made that declaration “the Father is in me “and I am in the Father”, his life was put under a microscope.  Since there was no National Enquirer at that time, some of the Pharisees took on this dig-up-the-dirt role.  Every time Jesus preached they were there, notebook in hand, writing down what he said and did, sniffing for a whiff of scandal that might discredit him in the eyes of the people.  Time and again they walked away empty-handed and disappointed.

          One day Jesus finally had enough of this and said, “If I am not doing the works of my Father, then do not believe me, but if I do them, even though you do not believe me, believe the works.”  Seeing is believing. Faith is not blind.  It sees the hand of God in actions not recognized by others.  Preconceived assumptions prompt them to ignore evidence of a divine hand.

          It did for those Pharisees because after Jesus made this common sense observation about believing what you see, they tried to arrest him again, but he escaped from their hands. From that day to this some see Christ in small acts of grace and others miss him entirely. Some see God in a new born baby and others just see an infant.  Opening your eyes to recognize God in your world requires both faith and reason.  It is about seeing to believe and believing in order to see.

Lord, open the eyes of my heart so I may catch a glimpse of You every day in miracles great and small. Amen.