{"id":2956,"date":"2023-09-05T08:09:12","date_gmt":"2023-09-05T12:09:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/js1cd06kre.onrocket.site\/?p=2956"},"modified":"2023-09-05T08:09:12","modified_gmt":"2023-09-05T12:09:12","slug":"seeing-faces-in-unexpected-places","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/2023\/09\/05\/seeing-faces-in-unexpected-places\/","title":{"rendered":"Seeing Faces in Unexpected Places"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

To listen to this reflection as a podcast,<\/em>\u00a0<\/em>click here<\/a> <\/em>

What\u2019s the happiest place in the solar system?

Disney World notwithstanding, it appears to be the Galle Crater on the surface of Mars.

As you can see from the image above, this 134-mile wide impact zone seems to answer the age-old question:\u00a0 Does God communicate with emoji\u2019s?

Of course, there might be another explanation. \u00a0It\u2019s called pareidolia<\/em>.\u00a0

That\u2019s the scientific term for the human tendency to see human faces in seemingly random places.\u00a0

For years people have seen the Man in the Moon.\u00a0 And smiley faces on the grilles of cars.\u00a0 And angels, demons, and religious figures in cloud patterns and tortillas.

A North Carolina woman discovered the face of Jesus on her grilled cheese sandwich.\u00a0 A homemaker from Glendale, Arizona, was shocked to see the Virgin Mary on a pancake.\u00a0 And a resident of Splendora, Texas, is certain that the head, hair, and cloak of Jesus appeared to her in a pattern of bathroom mold.

\u201cPeople say my house is blessed,\u201d she told ABC News \u2013 perhaps the first time anyone has been genuinely grateful for bathroom mold.

People tend to see faces in the most interesting places.\u00a0 What\u2019s going on here?

Scientists theorize that pattern recognition impulses like pareidolia<\/em> are a key human survival mechanism.\u00a0

Babies are magnetically drawn to people who smile.\u00a0 From our earliest hours we yearn to look into human faces and be assured of safety, friendliness, and care.

We\u2019re hard-wired, in other words, to respond to images of grace, even if they\u2019re in the splatter patterns of meteor impacts on the Red Planet.

The Bible\u2019s first chapter makes a startling claim:\u00a0Every human being is stamped with the image of God (Genesis 1:26-27). \u00a0

There is something inherent in every person we see that should lead us to conclude that we\u2019re encountering more than just a fellow human being.\u00a0 We\u2019re looking at the indelible fingerprints of the Creator.\u00a0

Sometimes we become blind to God\u2019s image in other people.

Our stubbornness, our biases, or our wounds may prompt us to look at others and see losers.\u00a0 Or competitors.\u00a0 Or outsiders.\u00a0 Or mortal enemies.

Jonathan Sacks, the former chief rabbi of Great Britain, once observed:\u00a0\u201cThe Hebrew Bible [the Old Testament] in one verse commands, \u2018You shall love your neighbor as yourself,\u2019 but in no fewer than 36 places commands us to \u2018love the stranger.\u2019\u201d

He adds:\u00a0\u201cThe supreme religious challenge is to see God\u2019s image in one who is not in our image.\u201d

If we ask God for the gift of fresh eyes \u2013 for the ability to see God\u2019s own face in ourselves and in others \u2013 something wonderful can happen.

The places where we live and work can become the happiest places on earth.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

To listen to this reflection as a podcast,\u00a0click here What\u2019s the happiest place in the solar system? Disney World notwithstanding, it appears to be the Galle Crater on the surface of Mars. As you can see from the image above, this 134-mile wide impact zone seems to answer the age-old question:\u00a0 Does God communicate with emoji\u2019s? Of course, there might… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2957,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[630],"class_list":["post-2956","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-gods-image"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2956","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2956"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2956\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2958,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2956\/revisions\/2958"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2957"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2956"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2956"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2956"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}