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Point of View

They are artists with a shutter for a brush and use lenses as extensions of their own eyes. These three women from my church frame hearts and souls and bits of creation and then snap them into sermons of pixels. I’ve been privileged to see the photos that Barb, Rachel, and Shannon birth, pictures that make me say “Ah, yes, that’s the essence of that child” or “Lord, what a world you’ve made!” I confess that I’m envious of their talent. I wish for their “eye” that sees the end product before the lens cap is removed.

I’ve recently upgraded my camera, so I am learning. I still leave the lens cap on, take pictures of my fingers, use inappropriate settings, or focus on the wrong place. My instruction book is getting dog-eared. Technical details about the self timer can be ironed out with a quick turn to page 67, but figuring out the correct “point of view” is proving more difficult. What place should I shoot from, at what angle, and where should the focus be? To get the photos my photographer friends take, I need to walk where they walk and see the world from their perspective.

In the same way that I’ve been learning from these three, I learn from those who are ahead of me on the path we walk as Christians. What do they stop and gaze at? What is their focus and point of view? How much of the “instruction book” is embedded in their minds? I had the opportunity last weekend to learn from others at a women’s retreat our church held, using Ann Voskamp’s 1000 Gifts DVD Study.

We immersed ourselves in a new/old point of view–we ate and slept and prayed gratitude. We were reminded that God’s grace shines on us, and we learned to see through the lens of gratitude, and to witness the final photos of joy in our lives. We were prompted to change our perspective, to stand where God stands.

The joy is there, even when showers come, as it did one afternoon of the retreat.

Remember what happens when the light shines from behind you through the raindrops? Look up, and you might see