Seeing with X-Ray Eyes
Day 6
Today’s passage concludes Buechner’s first chapter. He describes the process of becoming more sensitive, more aware and more alive as seeing with X-ray eyes - an attentive looking that enables us to see the likeness of Christ in all faces.
"The nearest big town to us in Vermont is Rutland-it's not all that big, but big enough. To get to Rutland from where I live you go through a tiny little town called Wallingford. I've made that trip six billion times and have often found myself, when I'm driving alone, asking myself, "Now, have I been through Wallingford yet or not?" I can't remember. I find out only when I've gotten to a certain point, and I think, "Oh, here I am at Rutland. I must've gone through Wallingford!" My point, not altogether a comic one, is that if somebody had taken a photo-graph of me as I was going through Wallingford, they would've taken a photograph of a human being who was not at that moment living his life. I was not present inside of my skin then. I did not see anything because I was so caught up in an inner dialogue.
"So, stop and see. Become more sensitive, more aware, more alive to our own humanness, to the humanness of each other. Look with Rembrandt’s eye, listen with Bach’s ear, look with X-ray eyes that see beneath the surface to whatever lies beneath the surface….
Buechner then gives some examples of seeing with X-ray eyes in J. D. Salinger’s novels The Catcher in the Rye and Franny and Zoey before continuing…
“…Then there’s that wonderful passage in C. S. Lewis’s Letters to Malcolm where Lewis speaks of having met a European minister who had seen Hitler. Lewis says, “What’d he look like? What did Hitler look like?” and the minister says, “Like Christ, of course.” Like Christ. Tremendously moving.
“Our secret face is that face. Paul’s right—the whole creation is moving, the whole great complex show has started so that we may eventually obtain the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, but to see it, the artist says, you have to stop and really look, look for it with X-ray eyes.
“So there’s a quick run-through of the arts, and the question is, what’s it all got to do with religion? Stop, look, listen—a lot, I think. I think in a sense that is what biblical faith is saying almost before it says anything else: Stop, and look, and listen."
Frederick Buechner, The Remarkable Ordinary: How to Stop, Look, and Listen to Life, Grand Rapids: Zondervan, p28-31.
To help you reflect…
As you move through the routine tasks of your day, play with trying to be present inside your skin. Be gentle with yourself when you notice yourself getting caught up in inner dialogue. Just try to notice what takes you away from the present and what helps to bring you back.
And/or…
Who do you struggle to see as bearing the face of Christ? Imagine looking at this person with X-ray eyes and seeing a glimpse of Christ. Go gently with this and don’t force your way through resistance. Acknowledge what is happening within you as you explore looking at them in a different way and let it open up an inner conversation.
I wasn't expecting the minister's response in Letters To Malcom. This will stay with me for a long time. It is easy to hate those who hate us or hate those we care about, to label them deserving of hatred and consider them despicable. To consider them beloved by Christ and made in His image stopped me dead in my tracks. Thank you.