Face of Jesus or Optical Illusion?

24/04/11 | Posted by Sarah-L-B

Let's face it, road and street works are not exactly an engaging point of interest. To motorists and pedestrians alike they are an unwanted inconvenience. Frankly, if I have one more rude council worker wolf whistle at me I may actually push them into the hole they just spent three months digging. Yes, the red cone brigade really aren't everyone's favourite people. The only time road work has ever interested me was a few years ago in Wolverhampton. The rain, which had since passed, and mixed with the dug-up earth creating puddles of sludge all over the pavement. Getting onto my tiptoes and preparing to skip over the mess, I glanced downwards...

 

Stare at the image for 30 seconds, then either close your eyes or look at a blank wall. Do you see Jesus?

The sludge had run down the pavement and somehow formed the shape of what appeared to be a bearded face. The more extreme reaction of course would have been to call it the face of Jesus. I could make it out quite clearly. The calm expression, the long hair…that’s Jesus, right?

Jesus and the Virgin Mary have been seen in everything, from burnt toast to tree bark, an unltrasound and even a pint glass! Naturally, public reactions to these sightings tend to vary. There are those who are convinced of their authenticity, those who are undecided, and those who prefer to liken them to seeing shapes in the clouds.

I read somewhere that the decade-old cheese toastie depicting the Virgin Mary sold for £15,000 to an online casino. Apparently they went on to make t-shirts using the image. All that my burnt toast ever did was set off the smoke alarm! In another instance, a shrine was created around a mug of hot chocolate.

Looking down at the face in the sludge, I decided not whip out my camera phone and run to the News of the World. As interesting as the face was, I’ve always had just enough imagination to see other things too. I once saw a face in the clouds which looked scarily like Michael Jackson. I’ve always been able to make out “The Winking Man” on Ramshaw Rocks in Staffordshire (my sister never could) and I’m pretty good when it comes to optical illusions.

Would it really be right to draw attention to the face I saw, even though I didn’t believe it was anything more than an illusion in a muddy puddle? Surely it would be wrong to share the image with the world, while not really believing in it? Somehow, it simply didn’t seen fair.

My thought of the day is also my question to you: What would you do if you saw an image of Jesus or the Virgin Mary?

Image from http://www.coolopticalillusions.com

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