What Do You See? (Friday Devotional)

For we walk by faith, not by sight.

- 2 Corinthians 5:7

The photo above isn’t especially remarkable; it’s just a heavily pixelated image of somebody holding a Coke can. But here’s where I blow your mind: the can isn’t red. Zoom in if you don’t believe me—there is no red anywhere in the image, only black, white, and blue. The red you think you see is just your brain playing tricks on you.

Optical illusions like this one never cease to delight, frustrate, and amaze—and remind us that there’s more to this world than meets the eye.

For Christians, some of what we believe is not visible to us. God is spirit. Christ is ascended. The miracles of the Bible were not captured on camera. So many of the things we read about in Scripture and believe in with all our hearts are matters of faith, not sight.

But faith is not a weakness, it is simply a countercultural way to move through the world. Christians are called to be faithful in a cynical world, to trust God in a world that favors skepticism. While most trust only what they see with their eyes, believers trust the Lord who has redeemed them.

After all, look at that image again—are you sure your eyes deserve to be trusted?