I’ve noticed a lot of charts popping up on Facebook lately. You know the ones … you have to see what word you can recognize first out of the maze of letters. I’m not sure what this is supposed to prove to us, but one thing’s for certain. A group of people can look at the same chart and each one see it somewhat differently. What mechanism in our brain enables one person to see the word “fun” first and another miss that word, seeing “love” or some other word instead?

Our minds are fascinating and mysterious, proving we are “fearfully and wonderfully made” as the psalmist said. One of my favorite sections in Introductory Psychology class was the topic of perception. The first time I saw the black and white optical illusion called the Rubin Vase that alternates between two opposing faces and a vase, I was fascinated. Depending upon how we perceive, some can see both “hidden” images and some can’t.  It’s more a matter of focus than how our brains are wired. Once it’s pointed out, anyone can see the alternate image that couldn’t be seen at all when first viewed.

When Jesus finishes telling the crowd the parable of the sower in Matthew 13, the disciples ask Him why He doesn’t spell things out clearly instead of telling them stories. Seemingly, they think He’s presenting important spiritual truths as hidden pictures, a lot like the faces and the vase. Jesus answers His disciples by quoting a passage from the book of Isaiah. “Though seeing, they do not see; though hearing, they do not hear or understand” (v. 13).

I’m sure the disciples were puzzled by this answer. “But Jesus, how could they see or hear or understand? You’ve not spelled it out for them. You give us the explanation, the meaning, of the parable, but for most of them, they just don’t get it.” To the disciples, it probably seemed unfair.

But Jesus knew something about the crowd that the disciples didn’t. Like the Jews in Isaiah’s time, their lack of perception wasn’t for lack of information or the ability to perceive. It was the result of failing to focus on the right things. He attributed it to their hearts, not their eyes or ears. “For this people’s heart has become calloused; they hardly hear with their ears, and they have closed their eyes. Otherwise they might see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their hearts and turn, and I would heal them” (v. 15).

Note His last statement: I would heal them. He’s not excluding them from His blessing. His desire is that they understand truth, obey it, and receive spiritual healing. But He knows that isn’t going to happen.  Why? They’ve closed their eyes and stopped their ears. They don’t want to see or hear. For then they would have to repent and turn from their sin.

In John 3 we see Jesus making much the same point when talking to the Pharisee named Nicodemus. Jesus says “I tell you the truth, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again” (v. 3), and Nicodemus doesn’t understand His meaning. (We know that because of the silly question he asks about having to return to his mother’s womb.) As they continue to talk, Jesus tells him why so many in Israel would not respond to Him, even though He had come to save them from their sin. “This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but men loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil” (v. 19).

Throughout the gospels Jesus talked a lot about spiritual blindness. In Matthew 6 He warned the people to make sure what they are seeing is true. Because the human heart is so deceitful, so capable of blinding us to what’s true, we are all in danger of focusing on the wrong things and missing what Jesus wants to impart to us. “The eye is the lamp of the body. If your eyes are good, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eyes are bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light within you is darkness, how great is that darkness!” (vv. 22-23)

HOW we look at things determines WHAT we see. Unless we are blind and our eyes aren’t working, everyone sees something as they gaze out into the world. But what I see may not be what you see, and vice versa. To a great extent, the condition of my heart will color my perception of the world. If our focus is fixed on God, the world will be full of His messages for us. We will readily see Him in the “hidden” image because our minds are trained to recognize Him. But if we are determined NOT to see Him, we will, just like many others in the world, miss everything He’s doing around us. It isn’t that we couldn’t see Him; it’s that we choose not to.

I find it interesting that throughout the Sermon on the Mount Jesus is encouraging His listeners to tune into what is all around them. He tells them to “look at the birds of the air” and learn what God is trying to teach them through the birds. He says, “See the lilies of the field grow.” They show us God’s care for the minutest detail of our lives, He explains. He even teaches them about the dangers of judging others when our own eyesight is compromised by a plank that hasn’t been noticed or removed. He concludes by saying “Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man” (Matthew 6:24). Seeing, hearing, understanding, obeying. These are the keys to a godly life. Being able to see is not a small thing. Jesus told His disciples that they were blessed to have eyes that could see Him and ears that could hear Him. (Matt. 13:16).

When people are born again and begin to follow Christ, most are astonished at how differently the world looks to them. What they had thought was true turned out to be an illusion. And what they used to avoid and run from they now embrace eagerly. Most new Christians are looking for every chance to hear Jesus speak to them. They don’t even mind rebuke if it draws them closer to God and helps them understand Him better.

But we who are older in the Lord need to be careful. Over time, our hearts can become calloused and we can start to focus more on what the world thinks and values than on our new identity in Christ. If this happens, we may find it harder to see and hear God on a daily basis. Part of the process of renewing our minds is to train them to perceive the world rightly, in accordance with the Word of God. He will enable us to see things as they really are if we are willing to let Him.

The great Christian leader Charles Spurgeon described the work of the Word in our hearts in this way: “Holy Scripture is an Aeolian harp, through which the blessed wind of the Spirit is always sweeping and creating mystic music such as no man’s ears shall hear elsewhere, nor hear even there indeed, unless they have been opened by the healing touch of the Great Physician. The Holy Spirit is in the Word, and the Word is, therefore, living truth.”

The work of the Spirit is to reveal Jesus Christ to us, to enable us to see Him first when we observe the world as an optical illusion. Both the carnal reality and the spiritual reality are before us at all times. Once our senses have been opened to be able to see the hidden image of the spiritual realm, we choose which one of these realities will gain our attention. Our perception is dependent more upon our will, our heart’s desire and appetite, than on our eyes and ears. The apostle Paul urged in his letter to the Colossians: “Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things” (3:1-2).

When we start to focus more on the carnal or worldly image, we forget who we are in Christ. This is what our enemy wants. Then he can flood our minds with fear, doubt, anxiety, confusion, and sinful desires. Darkness invades our minds and we forget the awesome power of Christ Jesus.  He has overcome the world! Once we shift our focus and begin to gaze at Him, we find we have all the resources we need to abide in Him and peace is restored to our souls. Darkness is dispelled in the Light of His Spirit. As writer A.W. Tozer observed, “Faith is the gaze of a soul upon a saving God.”

What do you see first when the circumstances of life bombard your senses? What do you tend to focus on as you try to figure out your best course of action or make sense of what has just happened? Are you quick to see the “hidden” image of Christ? Or does the image of the world crowd out His glory?

When we see Him in all His majesty, beauty, and resurrection power, we’re reminded of how insignificant everything else is in comparison with Him. Remember the words to the chorus “Turn your eyes upon Jesus”?  … “Turn your eyes upon Jesus, look full in His wonderful face, and the things of earth will grow strangely dim in the light of His glory and grace.”

Once we train our eyes and ears to see and hear Him, we will find that He’s not hidden at all. He’s in the center of everything and holds everything together by His power. We are in Him and He is in us, not only for this life but also for the life to come in eternity. If anything should give us hope and confidence, these truths should. How we look at the world will determine what we see. What we set our heart’s affection on will affect how well we perceive our riches in Christ.

Paul said his desire for all Christians was that we might “have the full riches of complete understanding, in order that [we] may know the mystery of God, namely, Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge” (Colossians 2:2-3).  How we look at Him (and at ourselves in Him) will make the difference in how we live out our Christian lives. I never want to get to a place where “seeing, I cannot see, and hearing, I cannot hear.”

Another chorus we used to sing back in the ‘70s comes to mind as I close out this look at perception. It will serve as our closing prayer.

“Open our eyes, Lord, we want to see Jesus, to reach out and touch Him and say that we love Him.

Open our ears, Lord, and help us to listen. Open our eyes, Lord, we want to see Jesus!”

(words by Bob Cull, c. 1976 Maranatha! Music)