I Spy and eyes to see
Do you have eyes but fail to see?
Mark 8:17–18
I recently had "a moment" with one of my nephews. We were poring over one of those I Spy hide-and-seek picture puzzles in an I Spy book. If you know the series, you know how cleverly the creator, Walter Wick, conceals his objects. Each puzzle challenges a reader to search for a list of specific objects. They are hidden within a field of meticulously crafted, densely packed, large-format two-page spreads (like this one). If you don't know the I Spy series, stop by Wick's website and be amazed!
Two summers ago, I gifted a couple of I Spy books to Kaeden and his brother Liam. I had no idea what a hit the books would be—or how God would use them to answer a very important question the boys had.
The Great White Bird
We were studying one puzzle, searching for the designated objects, including “a great white bird.” It didn’t take long to find most things, but in a sea of toys, trinkets, pencils, letters, and buttons, the bird eluded us. We were stumped, on the verge of turning to the next puzzle. Liam wandered off, seeking more action-packed adventures.
And then—I spotted a black eyeball staring out at me from the page. A bit lower, a yellow beak appeared—the great white bird! My eyes followed its white dove-like form on the white background, filling the two-page spread, barely discernible under the distracting clutter.
“Look, Kaeden!” I pointed to the eye and beak and let him find it on his own. This required a perception shift to look past dozens of tiny objects covering the spread and "see" it hidden behind the visual clutter, not in its midst.
Kaeden’s eyes popped when he saw the bird. A long “Ohhhhh . . .” followed. We had been looking for a tiny object, not a "great" full-blown backdrop.
In the silence that followed, Kaeden’s eyes roamed the page, and a flash of inspiration came to me. God nudged me to pick up our ongoing theological conversation: How do we know God exists if he’s invisible? As Kaeden stared at the great white bird, I whispered, “It was there all along—we just couldn’t see it. Just like God, who hides behind things that distract us.”