I am an ardent Gumtree fan. For those of you who don’t know, it’s an online platform where you can buy and sell things. I’ve bought and sold many things on Gumtree.

The drone that we use to record material for our YouTube sermons had to be replaced. We then received a substantial donation from a company and it was decided that we should spend the donation on a second-hand drone.

Like a true Gumtree man, I opened my laptop and typed in the necessary search words and voila! A drone that falls within our price range. The problem is that we’re about 700 kilometres away from the drone.

I asked the owner a lot of questions. He sent photos. I examined his WhatsApp profile and saw there was a small baby on it. I found out that it was a Dutch number and heard that he and his wife had been living there for five years. He was visiting family and friends here at the time.

Based on all this information I bought the drone. It came to us with a lift. And?

Oh, how excited I was when I saw the almost brand-new drone. It was exactly as the man said it was. I basically saw the drone through the man’s eyes and based on this took the risk and bought it without even seeing it with my own eyes.

We haven’t seen Jesus with our own eyes and yet we believe in Him. It’s quite a risk we’re taking, isn’t it?

In the same way, the people to whom Peter wrote this letter haven’t seen Jesus themselves. But they’ve heard about Jesus’ preaching. They’ve heard about the miracles He did. They came to know His character, without having seen Him. It was enough for them to believe in Him.

⁸You never saw Him, yet you love Him. You still don’t see Him, yet you trust Him—with laughter and singing.

How can we love Jesus, without ever having seen Him? How can we be loyal to someone we’ve only ever heard of? How can we trust someone we haven’t physically spent time with?

We must look through the eyes of those who have experienced Him themselves. It’s like the previous owner of the drone. By allowing myself to look at the drone through his eyes, I decided to buy the drone.

We must look at Jesus through the eyes of the writers of the Bible. You see, Jesus made such a big impact in the world, that His story could never end. People couldn’t stop talking about it.

Jesus’ impact was so great that the people to whom Peter wrote could not help but believe in Jesus, trust Him with everything, and even be loyal to Him. All this, by looking at Jesus through other people’s eyes.

If you reflect on your life, that’s exactly what we do too. Jesus’ impact on the world was so great that we believe in Him because we look at Him through other people’s eyes. That’s what faith is and that’s what faith can do.

Now we just have to ask to whom should we lend our eyes, so that they too can believe.

Scripture
1 Peter 1:6-9

Reflection
Have you seen Jesus?
Do you believe and trust Him?
Who needs to see Jesus through your eyes?

Prayer
Father, thank you for the grace that allows me to see Jesus. I believe in Him and trust in Him. Help me to live in such a way that others can see Jesus through my eyes. Amen.