This was the scene out my window this morning – there was a haze on the meadow.
You know I love taking pictures but I’m far from being a real photographer. I look at great photography as real art. The ability to capture the beauty that is seen with the natural eye through a lens is a true gift!
I take a lot of pictures and the thing I realized was how quickly I had been in taking some of them. Blurry – delete. Off center – crop. No one was ready – trash it.
The true photographer is patient; waiting for the right angle, the perfect light and then they bring it all into focus! A masterpiece.
A lot of people take life the same way – hurry up and click. Snap, snap, snap. Delete, trash it, do over. Or better yet they spent their lives taking selfies and never learn to include the beauty or the people around them.
With a Christ-centered focus, we can zoom in on what’s important. Bring even the tiniest of details up close and appreciate the intricate design – the design of health, friendship, innocence, honesty, joy, patience, love.
Reminds me of the story Jesus told of the Good Samaritan. The priest and the Levite were too busy taking selfies to be concerned with the hurting of the man who had been robbed but the Samaritan zoomed in, focused on the situation and saw the beauty of caring for someone other than himself.
“The next day, the Samaritan took out two silver coins and gave them to the man who worked at the inn. He said, ‘Take care of this hurt man. If you spend more money on him, I will pay it back to you when I come again.’
36 Then Jesus said, ‘Which one of these three men do you think was really a neighbor to the man who was hurt by the robbers?’
37 The teacher of the law answered, ‘The one who helped him.’
Jesus said, ‘Then you go and do the same.’” Luke 10:35-37 ERV
Lord, improve my focus today. Let me love my neighbor as you have loved me.
Amen! Lord help us all to zoom in on you so we will lose our natural selfishness and be able to zoom in on those around us.
So many times I have opportunities to get offended and if I focus on the wrong things I will take those opportunities. But getting offended is an action that weakens me. I have to stay focused to stay strong.