I admit it. I felt a little foolish standing in the middle of the mall staring through the Arts and Crafts window. Despite my wife’s urging, I couldn’t see anything but a silly poster splattered with blue, green, and red dots.

    “Can you see it?” Nancy nudged me.

    No, I couldn’t.

    “There’s the triangle,” she pointed to the left corner. “Over there is the circle. And over there is the square.”

    Still looked like a bunch of dots to me.

    “Look through the picture,” she tried again.

    Who does she think I am? Superman with x-ray vision?

    “Try staring at it,” she made yet another attempt when the x-ray vision advice failed. “And when your eyes fall out of focus, slowly bring them back into focus.”

    But when everyone in the mall is staring at the back of your neck, it’s hard to focus on anything; especially some stupid picture of hidden geometric shapes.

    “C’mon,” I gave up. “Let’s get some frozen yogurt.”

    You may already be familiar with the computer generated art form, sometimes called laser or 3-D art, in which three-dimensional objects are “hidden” within a two-dimensional picture. With practice and patience, what initially appears as a simple pattern of dots, shapes and colors suddenly gives birth to depth. Since that experience in the mall I’ve seen 3-D art posters, calendars and books often enough I am now able to “see” many of the images behind the surface. They sometimes seem so real I’ve been tempted to reach into the picture and handle the image.

    Recently, while “staring through” a 3-D image, I thought about how my relationship with Jesus over the last twenty-five years has, at times, been a little like viewing laser art. Too often I contented myself with a two dimensional religion instead of yearning after the depth of relationship with Christ. Too many times I satisfied myself by simply following self-established patterns and self-made rules about reading the Bible, reciting prayers and attending church, instead of making the effort to really know Him. For years, my walk with Christ too often revolved around habit rather than hunger, and more than once the Scripture from Isaiah pricked my heart:

“This people draw near with their words and honor me with their lip service, but they remove their hearts far from me, and their reverence for me consists of tradition learned by rote.” (Isa 29:13 NASB)

    I discovered long ago that two dimensional flat shapes and colors don’t require much effort to enjoy. All one needs do is look at them. Likewise, viewing Jesus on a tapestry of monotonous rote, rules and patterns doesn’t require much effort, either. It requires energy and patience to “see” His depth. It requires sacrifice of time and emotion to “touch” His hand. Sometimes a person might feel a little foolish standing out in the middle of the crowd. Not everyone wants to move beyond an effortless religion of Do’s and Don’ts, of form and ritual. But the longer I live, the more I am convinced the appeal of the flat can not compare with the glory of the deep. The closer I draw to Him, the more I long to see Him burst from the two dimension to the three, to explode from the flat to the profound. Yes, it requires effort to re-focus the eyes and look beyond natural to the super-natural. But surely the effort pales in light of the reward.