A Twisted Crown of Thorns ®

Every week somebody runs to the news papers with a chunk of bacon, half eaten pizza and wet patch on a nappy claiming to see the face of Jesus. Yes, they say it is the very face of the Lord Jesus Christ. It almost seems to be a sure way of getting attention these days. If I were to line up and sell all the things in my house (let alone the kitchen) that appeared like a hungry man with stringy iron filings for a beard I would be a rich man in two days!

Lupita la Bourdette said one such image appeared to her on the screen door leading into her home. Well…

“This is something that people have to see to believe,” la Bourdette, a Catholic, told KRGV reporters. “When I saw it, I wanted to cry. It impressed me so much.”

The resident of Pharr, Texas, said the image of Jesus and his mother Mary, whom she says appears to be holding a baby, showed up on the metal screen six years ago, shortly after she had a dream in which a little girl told her to pray for the world because “a lot of bad things are going to happen.”

She didn’t think others would believe her, but on Tuesday, All Saints Day, la Bourdette finally shared her secret. She and another area resident, Maria Elena Graciano, hope that the images will inspire belief and hope in those living in the area who are in need of something to believe in.

Inspire belief and hope in those living in the area who are in need of something to believe in? Belief and hope in what? Believe in a stain on a door? Is God that desperate? It reminds me of that couple (Jacob Simmons and Gentry Lee Sutherland) in Anderson County who reported that they have seen the face of Jesus Christ on one of their Walmart receipts.

A 24-year-old woman from Maryland also claims the Savior has appeared on her Nintendo set she bought on eBay! She apparently claims, “We were inspecting it for cracks/damage and when we turned it just right into the light, the image showed up. Our reaction was mainly curiousity [sic] at first. Then as we looked at it closer and ruled out what it couldn’t be, we began to get excited about it.”

Sorry but that doesn’t get me excited. Not even Jesus standing in the clouds. It makes me sad. I have always believed in the sufficiency of scripture and that none of us really knows what Jesus physically (or phenotypically – for my scientific friends) looks like because the Bible is silent on that bit. When we take  such images and representation of the Lord to be true, we imagine the human nature of Jesus to be separated from His divine nature. Remember He is God and man in one person. We cannot separate the one nature from the other.

Which reminds me now. I have a piece of cheese (that any decent mouse would be happy to occupy their time with à la #occupywallstreet) and it has a face with stringy beards. Yup, they even look like iron filings on his chin and I am just going to have it for a hearty breakfast!

Yum, yum!