Posts Tagged: picture and text
“WHEN GOD ISN’T IN THE PICTURE”
I receive a daily e mail from Loyola Press entitled “3-Minute Retreat.” (You may access today’s meditation at http://www.loyolapress.com/retreats/like-sheep-with-a-shepherd-start-retreat, accessed 06-01-2017.) Each meditation has a brief passage from the Bible, a few thought-provoking comments, a couple of questions, and a closing prayer. It also has a background picture.
The Scripture today was Luke 12:32. “Do not be afraid any longer, little flock, for your Father is pleased to give you the kingdom.”
Part of the comment from the author of this meditation is as follows: “We are created and sustained by a loving God, on whom we depend as sheep on a shepherd. With our generous God as shepherd, we have no more reason to fear.”
Luke 12:32 is a wonderfully comforting and energizing verse, and the comment was right on target. However, it was the juxtaposition with the background picture that especially struck me this morning. There is no shepherd anywhere in the picture!
And that is the way feels most of the time, isn’t it? God seems very absent from our daily lives. There is grass, sky, hill, other sheep, but no Shepherd.
However, neither cameras nor our eyes can catch all that is there. God is indeed working in our lives, though we rarely suspect it. He is indeed pleased to give us his kingdom.
In the background picture, one sheep out of the approximately fifty-seven sheep is looking directly at the camera. Most of the time, I am like the fifty-six. I’m eating, looking at other sheep, and doing whatever else it is that we human sheep do.
Perhaps the person who is taking the picture is the shepherd. Perhaps our Great Shepherd is taking the picture that we call “our lives”. Perhaps we are the subject of God’s shutter art. Perhaps God is too humble to be very obviously present in our lives.
It may be that you and I could choose to look up every once in a while, and look in the direction of the One who is taking the picture.
DOWN TO EARTH BELIEVER
- DTEB, “Getting Christ and Ourselves Back in Focus” November 11, 2024“Col. 3:1 ¶ If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Col. 3:2 Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. Col. 3:3 For you have died, and your life is hidden […]
- “Search Me!” October 27, 2024“Psa. 139:23 Search me, O God, and know my heart! Try me and know my thoughts! 24 And see if there be any grievous way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting!” (Psalm 139:23-24, English Standard Version) I am participating in a Bible study, and this is a prayer […]
- “Christian Speech” October 26, 2024“Eph. 4:29 Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear.” Foulkes, in his excellent commentary on the Book of Ephesians, writes the following, which I quote at some length: “29. Now the […]
- “God is in the Details” October 11, 2024“The devil is in the details.” (A general saying, often quoted by lawyers, reporters, and negotiators.) “God is in the details.” (Me, almost certainly not original.) “Luke 12:7 Why, even the hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not; you are of more value than many sparrows.” (Jesus) God does not micromanage, but God […]
- “Grandma’s Pump” October 8, 2024When I was a little critter, I would stay at my grandma’s house for a night or two sometimes. I liked this for a lot for many reasons. One thing I liked about staying with her was that Grandma’s house was much more technologically advanced than ours was. For one thing, she had indoor water—sort […]
- “Wearing the #14 Wrong-Side-Out” October 5, 2024Pete Rose, #14, is dead. Many of the old guys with whom I play softball watched him play and appreciated him greatly. I do as well. He was one of the greatest players who ever played the game. Yes, he admitted (eventually) to betting on baseball. But many of us still regard him as one […]
- “Passing Along the Love (and a Link)” October 4, 2024Several years ago, a friend of mine put me onto a daily meditation by Richard Rohr and friends. I don’t read them all the time, but I probably should. They are good! I thought that today’s writing was especially good, and I also figured that this would be a good way to post something. I […]
- “Witnessing Versus Being Witnesses” September 19, 2024“Acts 1:1 In the first book, O Theophilus, I have dealt with all that Jesus began to do and teach, Acts 1:2 until the day when he was taken up, after he had given commands through the Holy Spirit to the apostles whom he had chosen. Acts 1:3 He presented himself alive to them after […]
- “A Bathroom Prayer for Hurting Hands” September 11, 2024A week ago Sunday, my hands were hurting so badly at church that I went to the bathroom to run hot water over my hands. Arthritis perhaps, or carpal tunnel, or general orneriness—I don’t know why my hands hurt, but they do. They have for years. So, while I was running hot water over my […]
- “Waiting and Seeking” September 10, 2024“Lam. 3:19 ¶ Remember my affliction and my wanderings, the wormwood and the gall! Lam. 3:20 My soul continually remembers it and is bowed down within me. Lam. 3:21 But this I call to mind, and therefore I have hope: Lam. 3:22 ¶ The steadfast love of the LORD […]
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