While working on the Blessing of the Animals service, I began watching videos of animals saving people and people saving animals. A couple of hours later, I was still watching videos that included all kinds of amazing acts that are guaranteed to restore your faith in humanity! Sometimes, it gets too easy to let all the negativity weigh us down and to lose sight of the good in the world. But there is still much good in the world! We just must be willing to look for it.
Have you ever done one of those fun activity books called “Where’s Waldo?” The book was originally printed in 1987. A fun fact about Waldo: He was an afterthought. Martin Hanford was known for his drawings of crowded scenes as can be found in the “Where’s Waldo?” books. He was approached by David Bennet, a business associate and an art editor at Walker Books in England, about doing a children’s book. They decided there needed to be a central theme in order to connect all the crowded scenes and keep people’s attention, so they came up with the character originally named Wally. His name changed to Waldo when the book was published in North America. Wally gave people something to focus on from page to page and gained much popularity. If you have ever done one or two or three of those books (my brothers and I were big fans), then you know the more you do them, the easier it becomes to spot Waldo. This is especially true if you go through the same book a couple of times!
Much like the “Where’s Waldo?” scenes, the more you train your eye to see Jesus, the more you will actually see Jesus. Jesus is out there. He is on the busy streets of Pittsburgh; he is in the middle of the crowd of protestors; he is sitting in the seats at parliament. Jesus is riding on public transportation and walking through Walmart. Jesus is also lying on the beach and hiking in the mountains. Jesus is alive and is wherever you and I are. If you look for Jesus, you will see Jesus and never have to lose faith in humanity again.
Here is the challenge: This summer, as you go on vacation, to the pool, grocery shopping, or wherever you might be, I want you to take the picture of Jesus found on page 10 in this month’s newsletter (and found below), and I want you to take a selfie with Jesus. If you can’t print Jesus out, we would be happy to do it for you in the office. Post that selfie to Facebook, tagging Sewickley United Methodist Church in it, or post it directly to our Facebook page. You can also post it to our Instagram account. Another option is to simply send the picture to my cell phone: 412-294-7587, and I can post it for you. Include with the picture a couple of sentences of where you see Jesus.
Instead of making people search for Jesus, we are going to be a church that helps people find and see Jesus. After all, our faith isn’t really in humanity; it is in our risen Savior, Jesus Christ, who works through us to spread love all over the world!
From one light to another,
Pastor Hannah Loughman
