The Critter says:
"I love that movie! The explosions! The carnage! The blood! Oh. Wait. You're not talking about that!"
Matthew 13:1-23, John 1:1-18
Isaiah 6:9-13, Acts 17
"Make the heart of this people fat, and their ears heavy, and shut their eyes; lest they see with their eyes and hear with their ears, and understand with their hearts, and turn and be healed (Isaiah 6:10)."
In Poe's story, *The Purloined Letter*, investigators take pins and microscopes and examine the minutest details of a suspect's house, trying to find a stolen letter. No detail escapes their notice except for the most blatantly obvious and visible place, a card rack, where the letter is actually sitting. How often people do that with God. Unbelievers are like those investigators in the story. They measure and test the universe, from the outer reaches of our planet, to the tiniest of sub-atomic particles, and fail to see evidence for God anywhere. They analyze and try to pick apart religious texts, in hopes of discovering the truth, but it eludes them, because it's hidden in plain sight. "That's...too simple. Too obvious. Something must be wrong with it."
Like a billboard or a sign over a business establishment, we don't give the presence of God any notice, because it's too obvious. It's like when we make typos in written documents. The text is right in front of us, but we don't see the typo. Religious leaders tell people that Jesus isn't the true Jewish messiah because it's too obvious, too easy. They dismiss the massive spread of Christianity as simply the result of Roman warfare. They're looking for an obscure messiah you have to saw apart a table leg to find. Atheists want to find evidence for God's existence in a microscope slide, so they ignore God boldly advertising His presence through human beings. The parables of Jesus were thinly veiled attempts at proselytization, but what was being said was so obvious that it eluded the detection of many pharisees. If these unbelievers could see what was right in front of their faces, they'd turn and be healed. Sadly, even today, we have people who are too busy chasing what they think is concealed that they fail to notice a God who works in obvious, observable ways.
Dear Father in heaven, help me to keep my eyes, ears and heart open to your presence. Amen.