“I love you, O Lord, my strength. The Lord is my rock, my fortress and my deliverer; my God is my rock, in whom I take refuge. He is my shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold. I call to the Lord, who is worthy of praise, and I am saved from my enemies.”
~ Psalm 18:1-3
I got my Arizona vacation pictures back yesterday and I was thrilled with them. (Ah! Hiking with my baby through Arizona in long, cold February! I could get used to this!) There aren’t any award winning shots or anything, but I loved the way many of the pictures turned out. I won’t bore you with all of them or give you any sort of travelogue, but there was something I noticed about my pictures this year I thought was interesting.
This year I used a polarizing filter on my 35mm camera. I don’t pretend to completely understand the science of it, but a polarizing filter sort of does for your camera what sunglasses do for your eyes. It takes away a lot of the sun’s glare and allows the photographer to see colors and other things much more clearly and easily. Chuck Wick inspired me to give it a try after his Oregon trip years ago, but I never did until now. I wish I hadn’t waited so long…I could have been taking much better pictures. I don’t think I’ll ever take this filter off my camera! Even in black and white, the pictures look pretty good…
As I was thinking about the gorgeous, vivid colors and clear detail in these pictures, it occurred to me that my faith in Christ is a lot like my polarizing filter. My faith in Jesus wonderfully filters my world and helps me to see things more vividly and clearly. My faith in Jesus truly allows me to see the world for what it really is. Much of the world’s harsh glare is taken away and I can see my surroundings better. Lush and beautiful things become even more beautiful. Ugly or dangerous things become much more obvious and avoidable. My spiritual eyes do not tire, burn and water as they once did. And it is much, much easier for me to spend more time in even the harshest of this world’s glare.
Let Jesus filter your world. Let Jesus put the gorgeous blue skyline and vivid detail back into your vision! Take full advantage of all the things we’ve been learning in this great Fire & Reign series from the BGC. Spend time studying God’s Word, devote yourself more fully to prayer and time alone with God. Let Jesus show you the world as it really is!
Doesn’t that sound like a nice idea? I sure think so.
Amen.
