Seeing Jesus

"Dad," Elliot whispered to me in the middle of church.  "Sp, sp, sp, sp!"

I must confess that I'm not very good at reading lips and I couldn't catch a word my son was saying.  "What?"  I whispered back.

"Sp, sp, sp, sp!"  He repeated.  I still couldn't catch anything that he was trying to say.

"Sure, you can go to the bathroom," I said, taking a stab at what I guessed he was asking for.

"No," he said.  Finally, leaning close to my ear, he said, "I can't see the preacher!"

Unfortunately, I didn't have any easy solution for the situation.  When you are eight, you often find that even relatively short people are tall.  Elliot was just having his line of view blocked by someone who was probably 18 inches too tall (even when they were sitting down).

The passage of Scripture came to me of some nameless Greek Jews who came to the Apostle Philip with a simple request.  "Sir, we would see Jesus."  (John 12:21)  That's all we know about them.  We never even find out if they met Jesus after their request.

"We would like to see Jesus."

It seems that this is an awfully big need in our world.  People just cannot see Jesus from where they are sitting.  This is tragic, because it is the thing that this world needs the most.

At the same time, often the best way for people to see Jesus is to see His face reflected in the lives of His followers.  I pray that others might see Jesus in my life.  I may be the closest thing to Jesus that many may see and I want to reflect His love and goodness in all of the interactions I have with others.

Most of all, I pray that the view of Him would not be obstructed by the very people who should be pointing to Him, His followers.