Another Point of View by Sabrina Jones
Back in the mid to late nineteen nineties, there was a new phenomenon in picture puzzles. You may recall seeing them in newspapers, magazines, books and even displayed in art galleries. These puzzles were technically known as stereograms, but we called them Magic Eye puzzles. Do you recall seeing those colorful pictures of repetitive patterns, squiggly lines and dots which had captions below them asking, “Can you find eleven football players?” or “Can you see the hidden picture?” Maybe some of you were like me-thinking that this was some sort of gimmick or trick. I mean after all, the picture was right smack in front of my eyes and seeing is believing or so that is what we say. I can recall staring at one image with so much tenacity, my head began to hurt. I was determined to decipher this paradoxical display. . I did not want to throw my hands up and say “I quit-no way”, although I could have presented a strong mental argument and called it a day. My excuse could have been that without the aid of contact lenses or glasses, I could only see the first three lines on a standard eye exam chart; with the big E, just being obviously easy to make out, because truth be told that was blurry too. I could have rationalized that my myopia (near sightedness) or astigmatism kept me from seeing these tantalizing images. You see, I never doubted that the images were there. I just couldn’t see them, BUT I BELIEVED.
A few weeks went by and it seemed that there was a stereogram in the paper just about every day. I am fully aware that there is more to life and lunch breaks than dwelling on puzzles. After all, it was not my greatest pursuit in life, nor did it elevate my blood pressure when I could not see the image. Just the same, it bugged me. The way a mosquito does by buzzing in your ear. You know it is there and subtly you wait for the opportunity to pounce.
One day while reading the newspaper, a beautiful array of chaotic prints caught my eye. And, this time, the author gave instructions on how to actually find the hidden image. He said that you have to look beyond that which appears to be before you. In other words, basically look through the picture. You cannot rely on just your sight alone, but it takes being able to disregard what you actually see and look deeper to the point where your brain’s depth perception takes control.
Depth perception happens in the brain and not the eyes. And once you capture the ability
to tap in on how to see the image, your brain will automatically begin to lock
in and make what is non-visible, visible. It took believing to see, not necessarily seeing to believe. My faith illuminated my view. The substance of that thing which was unseen, became evidence of what I was hoping to see. Once I learned to look beyond the picture and view the image, not only could I see what had been hidden, but I could now comprehend it all in all three dimensions. From that moment on, I was able to clearly see the unseen images of every “Magic Eye” picture puzzle. Of course this got me to thinking…Thinking about realms of faith and seeing how God sees…. I thought about Elisha.
In Second Kings: Chapter six, the young man sees trouble all around before him, but is told by the prophet, ” Fear not: for they that be with us are more than they that be with them”. Elisha prays… Lord, I pray thee, open his eyes that he may see. And the Lord opened the eyes of the
young servant ; and he saw: and, behold, the mountain was full of horses and fire.
Elisha was able to look deep, ignoring what may have been in plain view. He looked through
God’s view. Looking past and beyond what was encamped around them. The young man got blessed as well as he took the challenge to look again. Can I challenge you to look again? Truly, life can deal us some situations that can look very bleak, and hopeless at times. But I am challenging you to relax your tired eyes and simply look beyond the circumstances and to the promise.
Look beyond the picture of defeat and see His image present before you. God gave us sight and imagination for a reason! I can guarantee that every time you gaze upon it, you will see something different in the view. This brings me to Paul on the road to Damascus who saw the light from heaven, who immediately submitted himself, while those who were with him did not see the light. And they let him know it too! There may be others around you who will think you are losing your mind, they will remind you of that dark picture hanging before you and even when you begin to see the image emerge, they will boldly tell you, that “ There ain’t nuthin’ there”. This would be a good time to learn to depend on Him to validate you and not others.
I must also remind you of King David. From a natural view, it appeared that he was not one primed and positioned to be King. He was from the projects, a blue collar worker. He was not ranked high enough, nor embellished enough to be considered for kingship. There were no
great titles, no reserved seating, no posse, and no royal cloaks that would have qualified him by assumption or association. But the bible says; “For the LORD does not see as
man sees; for man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the
heart.” God goes for deep. He looks deep. He looks beyond our fuzzy view.
Talking about kingdom living here! Wow, imagine if we can begin to live within the realm of His Kingdom daily! It can be very liberating. Seeing as God sees liberates us from living in bitterness and un-forgiveness toward those who have hurt us. Let’s look at these puzzling situations that we face in our lives. Do you see a mass of confusion, no direction or
distorted views? Pray and ask Jesus to allow you to see how HE sees. Let’s look
through the problem and go into the depths of our spirit and bring faith
to the surface. You cannot ignore it, but you can tell the problem to move over for a
few minutes while you begin to zoom into your faith- getting Him in plain view. Seeing as He sees. He has given us all things that pertain to life. The answers are before us, the solutions are
before us, the power, the keys…all are before us. We just need to begin to practice and master living in the realm of the kingdom so that we can see and capture what He has set before us. Keep a lookin’.
© Sabrina Jones, 2014
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