Making the invisible visible

I’ve been thinking quite a lot recently about how, all too often, “seeing is believing”.


In my work as a water engineer and missionary in Peru, I’ve focused in the last few months on distributing and checking up on water filters which remove microscopic parasites from drinking water. A lot of the teaching I give is about showing how the filters work – difficult when everything is too tiny to see, and we can’t distinguish between clean and contaminated water with the naked eye.

Previously when I worked in Ecuador, I used an incubator to grow colonies of bacteria overnight so they were big enough to be seen – there was an immediate and dramatic result when the villagers saw the difference between river water and spring water – they straightaway changed where they got their water from.

Here I’m investigating basic digital microscopes to be able to show parasites on a computer screen. In the meantime I have made a 1000x magnified water droplet out of plastic sheeting, along with colourful model parasites (photo) and a fishing net to filter them out. It seems to be working with many people using the new water filters, but others still have the tendency to forget or not be convinced because they can’t see the contamination or the difference when it’s removed.

I think of my challenge as “how can I make the invisible visible?”.

This is often a problem in spiritual life as well. 2 Corinthians 4:18 says “So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.” Sometimes we try to explain to people the dangers of living without following God, but we are not believed. Sometimes we, even though we are convinced, forget God’s nature and promises because he’s out of our sight.

So the question is the same – how can we make the invisible visible?

Here are a few ways the invisible is made visible:

• Jesus is “the image of the invisible God” (Col 1:15) and God made us “in his own image” (Gen 1:26). When we are God’s children, we are transformed into his likeness - our lives should demonstrate God’s character, and we should see him in others.
• Creation shows us clearly God’s invisible qualities – his eternal power and divine nature (Ro 1:20). Do we notice?
• Moses “saw him who is invisible” (Heb 11:27). Sometimes God reveals himself in miraculous ways – we need to be ready to believe when he does. 

Are our eyes open?

How can we help others to see?