There is so much going on in that little clip that amazes me! First of all, the whole cross thing on the cow’s forehead is kind of freaky. There is something miraculous about our ability to find God in strange places. I’m not sure if a cross on a cow’s forehead is a message from God (maybe the message is “Got Milk?”) or just a strange coincidence, but I do know that God still speaks.

What is amazing to me is that these two dairy farmers were listening. Whenever someone finds Jesus on a potato chip or a piece of bark, I’m usually snorting with laughter and contempt like the worldly cynic I can be. But these people all seem like normal people, fully aware of how ridiculous their message sounds, if, indeed, they have a message at all. And yet, there they are: waving their chip in the air saying, “Hey look at this!” Because they were minding their business one day pulling out an asparagus in their garden when they see this root staring back at them:

asparagus root Jesus

I mean, that has to mean something, right? How many of us would have been looking there, though? How many of us would have thought to look in a grilled cheese sandwich?

grilled chesse Jesus

Or an underpass?

underpass Jesus

Or an ultra sound?

ultra sound Jesus

Or a tortilla? Or a cast iron skillet? Or a door? Or a tree? It sounds silly, I know. But so does this:

¹⁰ Then the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid, for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy which will be to all people. ¹¹ For there is born to you this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. ¹² And this will be the sign to you: You will find a Babe wrapped in swaddling cloths, lying in a manger.”
(Luke 2:10-12, New King James Version)

WHAT??? In a barn? What kind of gullible backward hick, country bumpkin, u.f.o. sighting, just-fell-off-the-back-of-a-turnip-truck, simple simon, son of a gun would be crazy enough to go looking for the Savior of all humanity in a barn? I mean, really!?!? Who would be stupid enough to believe the creator of the universe wanted to send the world a sign so he mailed it to the cow shed behind some guy’s hotel in a third world country with no decent pizza place? Way to get the message out! Why not just carve it in braille under a rock on the dark side of the moon? We’re supposed to believe these Shepherds? These hill billies that just return from the fields claiming they’ve just been visited by beings from another dimension with a message of peace and harmony? What kind of people fall for that? A BARN!?!?!?!? Who finds JESUS in a barn?!?!?

oh yeah…

Okay, well I know of at least one couple in Connecticut. The rest of us are much further from the Kingdom of Heaven. Maybe we have something to learn from our modern day Jesus sighters. Maybe Jesus can be found in the most unexpected places. Maybe if it’s not on a grilled cheese sandwich, at least it’s in the precious face of the autistic child who’s asking for that sandwich. Maybe if it’s not on the tortilla, it’s on the face of the woman in Guatemala who’s selling that tortilla. Maybe if it’s not in an ultrasound, it’s in the miracle of human life that the ultra sound is bearing witness to. Maybe if it’s not on the wall of an underpass, maybe it’s that bearded man who sleeps there.  Maybe we don’t find Jesus in our lives because we’ve stopped looking. Stars are still pointing and angels still singing, but we’re too busy to notice. I don’t know if the face of Jesus is on a potato chip, but I do know that He’s out there. And I don’t know if He’s sent us a cow named Moses to tell us anything special but I do know that He still speaks. For there is born to us this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. LOOK AT THIS! A SIGN! Our prayers have been answered! How does the old saying go? God answers every prayer, but sometimes the answer is, “Mooooooooo!”