Rande, Aspen and I walked across the parking lot to Whole Foods.  A sign outside the entrance announced that Fabio was present at the store promoting his product. Rande said, “Ooooh, Fabio is here, you should get a picture with Fabio.”  Fabio?  I thought….Who’s Fabio and why would I want my picture taken with him?  Rande informed me that Fabio was such a good-looking former model that for many years he was used on the front cover of hundreds of romance novels.  Later Brett informed me that he knew of Fabio from his “I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter” commercial…he also said that people used to confuse him for Fabio since they look so much alike…my husband is prone to exaggeration (and hallucination) sometimes.

We walked into the entrance of the store and I saw a very large man of average appearance dressed in a pirate costume.  I mentally wondered why anyone had ever used him as a model for the cover of hundreds of romance novels.  When I voiced my opinion to Rande, she told me the large man in a pirate costume must be Fabio’s body-guard and pointed me to the real Fabio.  With all the other women in the area all aflutter over Fabio I felt a little silly that I didn’t even know about him.

Wondering why I had never heard of Fabio, when even my husband and my 27-year-old daughter knew of him,  I went home and  typed “Fabio” into the google search bar.  I discovered he was well-known in the 1990’s, and he made the “I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter” commercial in 1996.  In my defense, I lived in Alaska during most of the 1990’s without TV reception.  I also did not read romance novels, so I missed seeing his face on all those covers.

Famous personalities are intriguing.  Most often the reason behind their notoriety is because they possess some talent the world deems valuable or they are blessed with an extra dose of physical beauty.  These people are recognized around the world mostly for what they have done (movies, music, television, modeling and such) but we know little about them personally except what the tabloids tell us.  Having such a close brush with the famous Fabio today and almost not knowing it made me wonder how often this might happen with Jesus?

Would I really know Jesus if I saw Him?  Could I pick Him out of a group of people if a sign announced His presence?  Have I spent enough time looking at Him that I would never be confused about who He was or what He was doing?   I didn’t get my picture taken with Fabio today but I did wonder, when people look at me, can they see Jesus next to me?  Do I know Him personally, and well enough that I could introduce Him as a friend to someone?  I don’t think I’ll ever be that close to Fabio, or any other famous personality, but I can be that close to the creator of all things.