I lived in Missouri as a young man for a total of seven years (before and after my tour of duty in the Air Force). I discovered very quickly why they call it “the show me state”. I’m not saying everyone there is a sceptic, but Doubting Thomas would feel right at home. It was common to hear, “I’ll believe that when I see it”. But is what we see really a sound basis for our belief?
Magicians prefer to be called illusionists for a very good reason. They trick us into seeing what they want us to see instead of what is actually happening. (Some politicians are good at that too, but that’s a completely different topic.) We believe what the illusionist wants us to believe because we have seen it with our own eyes. Satan is not only the father of lies; he is a master of illusion. It’s no wonder that what many people believe will turn out to be an optical illusion; like a desert mirage drawing them in the wrong direction away from God. We simply cannot trust our eyes to lead us to true faith in God.
What about those things that exist even though they are not visible? There is a quote going around social media comparing God to oxygen. Even though we can’t see either of them, life is not possible without them both. If sight is our only proof, how could a blind person ever believe anything? You might be thinking, “For them, feeling is believing,” but that sense cannot always be trusted either. There is an old story about three blind men who touched different parts of an elephant and each had a completely different mental picture of that animal. Helen Keller, who was blind and deaf from birth, set things straight when she said, “The most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched; they must be felt with the heart.”
We believe in Jesus Christ as our Lord and savior because our hearts feel His presence, love, mercy and grace. It is only through Him that our faith is confirmed. Scripture is clear. 2 Corinthians 5:7 says of believers, “For we live by believing and not by seeing.” 1 Corinthians 13:12 tells us, “Now we see things imperfectly, like puzzling reflections in a mirror, but then we will see everything with perfect clarity. All that I know now is partial and incomplete, but then I will know everything completely, just as God now knows me completely.” I suppose it might be more accurate to title this post, “Seeing is not believing – yet”.