Before class, pull up this image to display for students on a projector or screenshared document:
Duck or rabbit? The 100-year-old optical illusion that could tell you how creative you are
After students have arrived, invite them to share what they see when they look at the image. Students will likely see either a duck or a rabbit in this optical illusion.
What did you see when you looked at this image? (Answers will vary.)
For those who saw a duck, when you look again, do you see the rabbit? (Answers will vary.)
For those who saw a rabbit, when you look again, do you see the duck? (Answers will vary.)
It can be frustrating when you know something is there but can’t see it. You can look and look and never see a hidden object, but then a friend can come along and point it out immediately. When it’s pointed out to us, we always have the same response, “Oh man! How did I miss that?” Sometimes it takes someone or something to open our eyes to what’s right in front of us.
That’s the way it was for a man who is colorblind. Color blindness affects millions of people and is a condition where you aren’t able to tell the difference between certain colors—most often red and green or blue and yellow. However, in 2010, a company called Enchroma invented a pair of glasses which allows those who are colorblind to see color. These glasses have allowed so many with this condition to see clearly what’s in front of them, changing the way they view the world forever. Let’s watch as the man puts on his new pair of glasses and sees color for the very first time.
Play the following video clip [2:07; stop at 1:28]:
Giving my colorblind Papa EnChroma glasses
- Why do you think he was overcome with emotion after putting on the glasses? (Answers may include: He was overwhelmed by what color actually looks like; his eyes were opened to a whole new world when he put them on; he could finally see what everyone else could see, etc.)
- How do you think these glasses will affect him and how he sees the world now? (Answers may include: I think he’ll appreciate color a lot more than most of us do; the world will seem bigger and brighter to him now, etc.)
- How would you feel if you weren’t able to see the colors around you clearly? (Possible answers: Sad that I was missing out on something everyone else was able to experience; I’d feel left out; frustrated or angry, etc.)
- Can you think of a time you got to experience something for the very first time that you had been waiting for your entire life? (Answers will vary but might include experiencing something geographically unique to an area they don’t live in such as seeing the ocean or snow for the first time when they had never experienced it before.)
Having our eyes opened to see something for the very first time can be overwhelming. It can even be life-altering if it changes the way we view the world around us.
In today’s lesson we’re going to learn about two men whose eyes were opened to see and understand the Scriptures from the Bible in a brand-new way because Jesus Himself stopped to teach them. Let’s see how their new understanding of the Scriptures changed the way they viewed Jesus and altered their world forever.
