HIDDEN IMAGES

Recently I when I had checked my Facebook account received another one of those pictures with a hidden image. My FB friend challenged all the readers of his post to see if they could see the real picture within the obvious picture!

I’ve been receiving a lot of those ‘hidden pictures’ lately. It’s fun to locate the hidden images. One picture that received a lot of hits was of a man that showed him from two directions in the same picture; a profile and a full frontal view. It was unusual to say the least.


Our good friend Rick Boyd, gave us a beautiful framed picture of the face of Jesus Christ as a housewarming gift. We still haven’t found all the hidden scenes in this painting. So far we’ve found over twenty and are still counting! Amazing!


More recently our daughter and son-in-law (Dotty and Carl) gave us a painting of the city of Jerusalem as viewed from the Mt. of Olives as a Christmas gift. The artist, Ruth Mayer, has painted many hidden figures in the area of the Garden of Gethsemane.


Several of the apostles are secreted away amidst the leafy boughs of the olive trees. Among the many flowers in the foreground is the likeness of a man kneeling as he digs in the fertile soil, obviously planting more flowers. Charlie is much better at this than I am and has found five or six other figures in the painting.

One of the neatest pictures is of an old man and woman sitting on a bench under an olive tree reading their Bibles. Hey! That’s Jerri and Charlie on that bench! What a surprise, when we realized that the artist had actually painted our likenesses into the foreground of the painting. Behind us is the glorious sunset over Jerusalem.


Charlie says the old couple is studying for their finals in the sunset years of their lives. That reminds me of the acronym B.I.B.L.E: Basic Instructions Before Leaving Earth. We certainly need to be boning up for that final exam.

Speaking of hidden pictures, do you realize that God can show up in the strangest places? Sometimes you’re not even aware of his presence until a situation arises in which you need him and He reveals that He is already there.

In Isaiah 45:15 it says, “Truly you are a God who has been hiding himself, the God and Savior of Israel. (NIV) Sometimes it does feel like God is hiding himself, especially when we’re going through trials. Who has not posed the question to God, “Where are you?”

One of Ruth Mayer’s most beautiful paintings is of NYC where an angel with outstretched arms hovers behind the Twin Towers. She painted this particular piece before 9/11. You have to study the picture to see the angel, but once you discover it, the image is one of the most obvious and beautiful parts of the picture.

If you’ve taken time to read the stories of the survivors of 9/11 you can’t help but realize that God was there…in the offices, in the hallways, on the subways and in the faces of the brave responders to the attack.

God is also hidden from our eyes many times when we’ve clouded our minds with the fleeting things of this world. We’ve become too familiar with God on some levels. We take so many things for granted, things that used to amaze us; the provision of our needs, the daily warmth of the sun, the smile of a little baby. The list goes on.

This year we need to ask God to give us the fresh faith of a child, the feeling of wonder when we see a sunset; the thrill of being hugged by our spouse as if we were still dating; the excitement of a prayer answered, though the request seemed inconsequential and most of all to rejoice as we feel the presence of the Lord in our lives.

In Isaiah’s day God WAS hiding Himself, but on that first Christmas long ago in Bethlehem, He chose to reveal who He is, as pictured in the Lord Jesus Christ.

“By common confession, great is the mystery of godliness: He was revealed in the flesh, Was vindicated in the Spirit, Seen by angels, Proclaimed among the nations, Believed on in the world, Taken up in glory.” (I Timothy 3:16 NASB)

When we visited Ruth Mayer’s art gallery in California, she took great delight when we could find one of the hidden images within her paintings. How much more delight does our Heavenly Father take when we see his face in every area of our lives.


He wants to reveal Himself to everyone in this world. Will you take the time to ask Him today to reveal Himself to YOU?

Note: To view Ms. Mayer’s paintings go to: www.ruthmayer.com