On Jesus

Every so often I come across a nugget of joy that dances across my screen and sends me into a state of amusement and wonder. So many people today are grasping at vague straws of religion to find connection to deity and leads to finding the image of Jesus in sandwiches, potato chips, and x-rays. Yea, okay, so it might look like Jesus. It also looks something like Jerry Garcia. I personally see Charles Manson in a lot of the supposed Jesus sightings. It leaves me scratching my head and wondering first "Does that make Jerry Garcia a God?" and secondly, "SO WHAT?"

Are people today so desperate to connect to deity that they have to find it in a piece of food? Church just doesn't seem to fit the bill for them anymore, so they have to run around finding their spiritual wisdom in a bag of Fritos or in the way soap swirls down the drain at the car wash. Shouldn't this be telling people, honestly, that their views on religion need to change? Doesn't it seem a BIT more natural to actually find divinity in everything rather than finding divinity's face in a rust spot? Although it can be argued that you are finding divinity in a fish stick or a piece of popcorn it is not Jesus. Divinity comes from within, not from without. Although I know many Christians who see God as being a thousand miles away pointing a finger down and saying, "Do it and I'll fucking spank you", but they seriously need to take a look at what they are doing.

Just because your x-ray might possibly look like the face of Jesus doesn't mean that Jesus actually appeared in the guy's head. It doesn't mean that he is a better person or Christian than anyone else. Jesus didn't come to you on the bubblegum that sticks to the bottom of your shoe; you just want to see him there. You want to feel connected to the Great Spirit again instead of being hollow. You want to see divinity in everything, just not breakfast cereal. You want that same childlike wonder that you felt every Sunday when you listened to the sermon.

The thing that really boggles me is how much stock everyone seems to be putting into these supposed sightings. Whatever you do, don't you dare deface the property! I remember when people were seeing the face of Jesus on rust spots on soybean silos in Fostoria. People were driving from all over the country to see the face of Jesus on the silos. Route 12 was jammed so no one could get into town because of all the people showing up. A few weeks after it hit national news, someone threw paint balloons at the "face". People were outraged and crying and throwing fits because the face of Jesus was marred. The entire thing just struck me as odd. Why would someone drive for MILES to come and see some rust on a silo, even if it DID look like Jesus? Shouldn't people be more concerned with finding a way to carry out the words of Jesus on a daily basis instead of only visiting when Jesus shows his miracles?

On the other hand, if seeing these things really DOES mean that Jesus has visited you, why OH WHY would you sell it? If God has sent you a vision or if Jesus has appeared to you on your perogi, wouldn't you take it as a sign that something needs to change in your life? I don't know about anyone else, but I take offense that people would have a divine experience such as this and then turn around and sell it. If God was sending me a message, I wouldn't stuff it in a box for ten years or immediately post the pictures on Ebay, I would take my ass to the church and pray to God to reveal to me what it is he has to tell me so desperately that he left me a sign in a picture of spaghetti on the sign of a building. I would have my ass planted in a pew.

Things like that have happened for years. My question is... When is it going to stop? I know Jesus has been missing for nearly 2,000 years, but for crying out loud, people. Find God in your Heart, not in your dinner soup. I don't run around claiming that the apples that fall from the tree in my back yard are marked with the face of Eris, although maybe I should. It might make things a bit more interesting.

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Related Links:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6651230/

http://www.wtol.com/Global/story.asp?S=3715322

http://www.ibiblio.org/pub/electronic-publications/stay-free/5/jesus.htm