Frosty Winter Morning. Photo by Bob Coller.
My friend Bob graciously granted me permission to share this amazing photograph with you.
The Incredible Sweetness of Being, Part Four
My friend’s photo made me shiver, though I sat snug, this February, in my Southern California home. The bare trees pleading, the empty tables honed with frost, the morning light creeping upon the earth: I felt the Michigan cold as I studed Bob’s work. “How did you do that?” I asked him.
He said what photographers always say.
It was all about the light.
But then he went on. He told me how the long morning’s walk had drawn him into cold mode, where he could “easily focus on a surrounding image that communicated the inner sense.” Then he added another thought:
We see in the world and communicate to others the state of our inner being.
I read his words three times, slipping the idea on for size like a new coat. I remember a Saturday afternoon spent being, wrapping myself in a blanket of rest, and the simple beauty I found all around me that day.
And I remember that busy day when I stormed the grocery store, grimly searching for fresh mushrooms, late and frenzied and determined to complete my mission and move on to the Next. Important. Thing. on my list.
No one smiled at me in the store that frantic day.
I study my friend’s wise words again. Inner being.
Bob had to let the cold inside to really see the cold.
And me? I had to let Jesus inside before I could really see Him.
Wait a minute.
Christ dwells in me. I bear His image.
What Bob taught me about cold, I’m applying to Jesus.
Today, I’m remembering that He dwells in me. My job is to be, to let that indwelling Spirit move me. We’ll see what we’ll see.
9 However, you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. But if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him. 10 If Christ is in you, though the body is dead because of sin, yet the spirit is alive because of righteousness. 11 But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you.
Romans 8:9-11 (NASB)
Recent Comments