Peek-a-BOO!

Maybe you've already received this image of the nighttime sky in an e-mail message. If not, take a wild guess at what that eerie looking object in the heavens might be.

Need a hint? Well, according to the originator of the e-mail, this image was captured by NASA. You know the Loud Mouth in the Balcony is skeptical; so I checked it out.

Lo and behold, it was true: NASA is the image's source; I think you'll agree that it's a highly credible source.

Now what do you think the e-mail said that NASA called this image? Take a wild guess.

Uh huh. The Eye of God. Now if we believe that, all we have to do is figure out whether God is winking at us, which explains why we can't see the other eye, or if "He" (pardon my limiting masculine pronoun) is the mythical one-eyed Cyclops. Oh yeah, and where is God hiding the rest of "His" body?

Obviously, the sleuths at snopes.com had wondered the same thing. This is what they dug up:

"This is a real photograph of the Helix Nebula, although it's technically not a single photograph but rather a composite image formed from several photographs taken by NASA's orbiting Hubble Space Telescope and a land-based telescope at the Kitt Peak National Observatory near Tucson, Arizona.

"This image was NASA's "Astronomy Picture of the Day" for 10 May 2003. The tinting of the image is artificial; the Helix Nebula does not naturally appear with the colors shown above. The picture's 'Eye of God' appellation is a title coined by an admirer of the photo due to the nebula's resemblance to a human eye, not something designated by NASA. The nebula is also visible all the time, not merely 'once in 3000 years'."

Of course, the e-mail didn't mention any of these critical details. Instead, it added that un-Christlike Biblical quotation that always accompanies these types of messages:

Jesus said, "If you are ashamed of me, I will be ashamed of you before my Father."

Considering that neither Matthew, Mark or Luke knew Jesus personally, and were writing decades after his crucifixion without the benefit of tape recorders, transcription machines or even shorthand to validate the accuracy of this quote, it seems implausible that it came from the mouth of a man who believed in forgiving 70 times 7.

"Condemn not," he instructed. Threatening others was not part of the Prince of Peace's nature; and it certainly is nothing he instructed anyone else to do. He even told his disciples to wipe the dust from their feet and keep it moving if people didn't accept their teachings. He didn't say, "Badger, belittle, and threaten!" Instead, he wanted them to move on. Those who have ears would hear. Period.

Some folks have glossed over that part of the Gospels, apparently. So they spend their time manipulating others through un-Christlike messages such as this.

It came as absolutely no surprise that the next "photo" in this e-mail was one of a teary-eyed God, peering at Earth, with a face almost as big as the planet itself.

If we are to interpret this photo literally, and if we are to believe that God is human rather than Divine, it would make sense that "He" would be saddened by man's attempt to distort Jesus' beautiful lessons into utter meaninglessness. And, I could see where "He" might be even more disturbed to see that man has made God in his physical image, rather than acknowledging that we were created in the image of God. As described in scripture, that means we are omnipresent Spirit--like God.

Luckily, God is so all-knowing that nothing we do surprises or saddens "Him". "He" knows us better than we know ourselves, and "He" loves and forgives us, despite our shortcomings and short-sightedness.

Now that's the kind of Love that will absolutely bring a tear to your eye, no matter how big your head is.