Barnabas Network International | Online Resources for Churches

Seeing Things Differently Now

 

I sometimes wonder if there are other people who think like I do?

Imagine for a moment that we were having coffee one day and I said to you that I had a photo of Jesus. Now don‘t be distracted by the fact that they didn’t have cameras let alone digital cameras in those days. I deliberately used the word ‘imagine’. Having made the claim, I reached into my top pocket and produced just such a photo.

What I want to know is, “What would you be expecting to see as you reached out to take the photo in your now quivering little hand?” Before you look at the photo, imagine yourself in the crowds that followed Jesus.  Can you describe what he looks like in your imagining? Maybe you see Him wearing a flowing white robe. Would you expect to see someone with perfect skin tone, immaculately attired, for example?

This little exercise is not without value because how we perceive Jesus often determines how we relate to Him. Of course, the exercise is complicated because we are not only relating to a very human image of Jesus but we are relating to the Creator of the universe. I say ‘complicated’ because my capacity to grasp the length, breadth, height and depth of this Creator God is so limited as to be virtually non-existent.

The best I can hope for is to think of Jesus as He revealed Himself to His disciples. Not “one of the boys” but One who comes to us in categories that we can understand. Accessible. Available. ….you think of some!

I sometimes wonder if there are other people who think like I do? I’m still wondering

 

 

 

Download free ministry resources.
give us your feedback.