Luke 7

A centurion, an officer in the Roman army, sent for Jesus to come and heal his servant. Jesus was on his way to the centurion's house when he was met by him on the road. He said to Jesus, "just say the word, and my servant will be healed." (Verse 7) This Roman soldier believed that his servant would be healed if Jesus just said the word.

The faith of the centurion amazed Jesus, he said, "I tell you, I have not found such great faith even in Israel." (Verse 9)

The people of Israel had been waiting for the Messiah to come for a long time, and here he was, in their midst, and they didn't believe. A Roman soldier, who was not waiting for a Messiah, heard about Jesus, met Jesus and believed. How is that possible?

Maybe it is easier to see Jesus when we aren't expecting him to be a certain place or look a certain way.

I have recently become addicted to twitter. I'm not very good at tweeting yet, but I love how quickly information is now being shared. I especially like following sports reporters that are at the games that I wish I was at. They often attach pictures to their tweets from the sidelines right after the game. I open the tweet and while the picture is loading, I imagine what it will look like. I am never right... Nothing ever looks like I pictured it in my mind.

Maybe our culture has become too familiar with what we expect Jesus to look like, a white guy with long hair and a Chuck Norris beard, that we miss his presence in our lives.

Maybe you've heard a pastor say something stupid and you are convinced that God is unforgiving, quick to condemn and hates gay people. I understand why many have turned away from that God, but that isn't who Jesus is.

The truth is, Jesus probably doesn't look like Chuck Norris, heaven probably isn't in the clouds and God is more loving than any of us could ever imagine.

I think, if we could throw away our expectations of who we think God is, and burn the imaginary box that we have put God in, we will be freed to experience God in surprising and exciting ways.

Maybe we will learn to see Jesus through eyes of a Roman soldier.