Is seeing believing?

One of the stories about Jesus in the New Testament that fascinates me is His righteous passion displayed in the temple when He overturned the tables.

John 2 tells the story, in the last half of the chapter. But what really gets me is verses 23-25….

“Because of the miraculous signs Jesus did in Jerusalem at the Passover celebration, many began to trust Him. But Jesus didn’t trust them, because He knew human nature. No one needed to tell Him what mankind is really like.”

Wow. That last statement gets me….”No one needed to tell Him what mankind is really like.”

Basically, I think Jesus was disappointed in those that believed only because they had seen Him work. He would have much rather had them believe in faith….not sight. Because of the way this passage reads, it leads me to believe that Jesus thought these people would be easily swayed should their faith be challenged….because they had to see to believe.

In John 3, the theme continues with Nicodemus. Jesus tells Nicodemus in verse 12, “If you don’t believe me when I tell you about earthly things, how can you possibly believe if I tell you about heavenly things? “

In our relationship with God, there are times when we would love to see a God that moves vividly so that our eyes can’t be deceived and we know that we know what God is doing. But more times than not, God moves behind the scenes, in secret, in quiet and our faith is what propels us to keep moving forward.

“My faith shall be my eyes”… a song lyric from a popular Chris Tomlin song. I think about that lyric and I think about these scriptures and I am left wondering if this is true for me.

Am I waiting for the water to turn to wine…to see and taste the work of God, or am I blindly following and surrendering in faith to what is unseen, but what I know is the Foundation on which I can place my hope????