Is real life like a magic eye illusion?

Do you remember those magic eye stereogram pictures that used to be popular?

At first glance, the picture just looked like a jumbled mess of colorful lines and squiggles.

If you didn’t know better, you may have just taken a quick glance, shrugged your shoulders and thought, “Huh, that’s a weird picture,” then left it to go on your way.

But if instead someone stopped you and said, “Wait, there’s more to this than you can see! There’s actually a 3-D image hidden in the 2-D picture! You have to adjust your vision in order to see it.”

Well, I suppose you’d have 2 responses:

You could just brush them off as crazy and say, “Nah, I don’t believe you.”

Or, you could say, “Really? Can you show me?”

The second reply does require a bit of humility because you are admitting that they know something about the image that you don’t. But, by believing them, you open yourself up to new possibilities.

I think reality is a lot like looking at one of these ‘magic eye’ pictures.

Some people have been shown – and have seen – that there is more to this world than what they initially thought.

They have seen with eyes of faith that God is real and that there are supernatural things happening all the time.

To these people, it really is like an “AHA! I CAN SEE IT! It’s so clear! Why did I ever doubt!” kind of experience. Even if it’s just for an instant, they see the ‘3D’ reality beyond the ‘2D’ that they live in – and it is beautiful and amazing.

But, like a stereogram, it’s also pretty easy to lose the image when your focus changes. So, people who did see with eyes of faith can start to doubt again if they don’t keep their focus.

Of course, there is one difference I can think of between the stereogram and the walk of faith: sometimes it seems easier to evangelize for a stereogram than for faith in God. 🙂

That is, even if someone can’t make out the 3D image in the picture, since others can clearly see it, they don’t doubt that the 3-D image is actually there. They recognize that the problem lies in their ability to see it, and not in its existence.

Conversely, it seems that people who disbelieve in God find it easier to believe that those who do see are simply crazy than that the problem lies in their ability to perceive.

So, if you can and do see with eyes of faith, hold on to your focus.

If you have seen, but have forgotten, strive to regain it.

If you’ve never seen, you can. It’s real. Talk with someone who can show you how to see it.