Did you ever wonder how the supernatural manifests — shows itself — in physical terms?
Often, we see those reports of angels and other religious figures in objects, and some of these cases bear credence. The most obvious example: the Shroud of Turin, followed by the Guadalupe image.
There are others — perhaps many more than institutional religion recognizes.
Evil likewise shows its shameful face, and perhaps how it forms images was brought home to us by Blake Healy, an Atlanta Christian who claims, since childhood, to have seen the actual supernatural workings in our world.
“I was standing in my parent’s room, straining to listen to the conversation they were having in the kitchen upstairs,” he recounted from a childhood experience, to quote him again.
“Though I couldn’t understand the muffled words, the unhappy tone made it clear that they were in an argument. I stared upward, hoping it would somehow make their voices come through more clearly. As I looked up, a face morphed out of the ceiling, seeping from the drywall like an over-heavy droplet of water. Its skin was pale with dull feathers except for its dark eyes; it had sharp, pointed teeth and an odd, oblong head.”
If this manifestation had not soon detached and floated free from the ceiling, one wonders, might it have imprinted itself in the plaster, if it so chose — leaving us with another of those possibly supernormal visages that folks “see” on physical things like walls?
Stranger still, according to a recent news item, trees at Ladysmith Cemetery in South Africa seem to turn and twist, at various times, according to myriad passersby, into what they interpret as demonic visages. Crazy stuff. Or is it?
“If you drive along Poort Road, past the first tree that inspired us to coin the term, many people say that if you look quickly, it’s almost as if the tree moves, even on a windless day,” reports a newspaper. “Then you look again and it’s standing as rigid as all the other trees around it. There are two such trees in Poort Road, as reported in our articles. From a certain angle, one of the trees appears to have a bowed head, with a wing extending out from its back. An angel? No, but aren’t those horns we see?”
“Opinions vary from the demonic to the angelic to the unusual to ‘it’s just a tree and nothing special at all,'” says the news blog.
Quite a variance of opinions!
Many astronomical photos have profiles that can be readily interpreted as good or evil (or naught but circumstance)
As for trees, this time from a holier viewpoint: “My niece took these pictures after praying the rosary at a park in Long Island, New York,” notes a viewer in our mailbag just this week.
And healthwise — physiologically? Do forces interact in and on our bodies?
Jesus often cast spirits out before a healing. That says what we need to know.
And sometimes people in the news indicate the same, like Patti Mallett, who went from celebrating a friend’s birthday to fighting for her life in mere hours.
“That she’s still here today, enjoying family and friends and playing with her grandchildren, is largely due to the swift diagnosis of an uncommon disease — necrotizing fasciitis [flesh-eating bacteria] — and immediate lifesaving treatment,” says a newspaper.
“’I started telling myself, every day has a purpose. Instead of questioning, why am I here today? I would think, ‘Oh, it’s because I needed to do this. I need the people around me and I know they need me.’
“All these scars I have, I’m trying to get comfortable with them showing in public, and I just say,
“‘Hey, I fought the devil and I won.’”
[resources: Blake Healy’s book, The Veil]