Okay… One time I agreed to photograph this person’s son. I took several rolls of film and basically got 7 exposures that I was REALLY proud of. The rest of the pictures were okay… but those 7 were the cream of the crop.
Let’s say I shot 5 rolls at 24 exposures each. According to Calculus that comes out to almost 125 pictures. Out of those: 7. Seven. If you are Dutch: Zeben. If you are German: Sieben.
But however you say it… I had 7 pictures I was proud of.
So… when I took these pictures to show the mother, she started flipping through them and she’d grab one and show it to me and say, “Ahhhh… this is precious.”
I’d think, REALLY? That ONE???. I’d say: “Yeah… he really looks happy.” I couldn’t believe that she thought that one was good. That happened several more times… and then she got to one of the exposures I was REALLY proud of and she flipped right past it.
I think all but one of the 7 I really liked, she flipped past. So I asked to see the pictures and flipped back to the ones I liked and showed them to her. She said: “Yeah… they’re nice.”
I couldn’t believe it! NICE?! Kitty Cats are NICE! These pictures are awesome!
But she just didn’t see it. She was very happy with the pictures. She put them up in her office at work and she said she gets compliments all the time. But honestly that was a lot more about how photogenic her son is rather than a reflection of my photography skills.
But it didn’t change the fact that I thought that those 7 pictures seemed to be wasted. In these pictures, exposure, framing, white balance, f-stop… everything was perfect.
But it was only perfect to me. I took the pictures. I know how hard it was to get those pics. I know how unique they were. But that is NOT a guarantee that everyone else will see it and appreciate it.
I was proud of those pictures. But it would have been nice to have outside confirmation of, what I saw as, my creative success.
God creates all of us.
But do we always see the beauty? Do we always see the creative awesomeness?
Do we always see the value in all his creations?
Have you ever said something about someone that wouldn’t fall under the category of encouraging? I have.
Have you ever seen something about someone else that you didn’t like and pointed it out? I have.
Have you ever done this with someone in the Lord’s Church? I have.
Let me tell you one of the biggest problems with life. Ready?
We are often called upon (or we just take on the responsibility on our own for no good reason) to speak on a subject that we are less than experts in. Such as, I don’t know… ---- people.
For us to truly understand the Human Condition, we must see ourselves for who we really are. I lived many years under self-delusions. CRAZY self-delusions as to the type of person I was. I once thought I was cool. See… told ya it was crazy.
When I was a kid… there was this guy I went to school with. People used to talk about how his clothes were so old… and they were. One day his pants ripped in class… and everyone laughed…
He looked so embarrassed. I didn’t understand till much later that his pants probably ripped because they were so old. He couldn’t afford to buy new stuff… He wore it till it absolutely wore out. They were probably hand-me-downs many times over.
That didn’t change the fact that he was a person. He never had many friends. Everyone thought he as strange. The friends he had were pretty much like him… strange. Or so I thought.
In High school… when classes get harder and good grades become harder to come by… this guy was holding steady. He was really smart. I was assigned to a research assignment with him. It took a couple of days... but he opened up and he was just like me.
I just needed to look a little harder to see it. His name was Shawn.
He wasn’t really popular. But he was real. God made him. Just like he made me.
Think of someone you really don’t care for. If they were to walk into church… would you be happy?
Would you encourage them?
Would I? I wonder…
Would it be hard? Probably. Would I…..?????
Hebrews 10: 23Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful;
24and let us consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds,
Well there’s my answer. I have to.
Is it for me to say anything about anyone other than to encourage them in a loving manner? No.
Think about people like pictures… you flip through God’s pictures… Do we see what God was thinking when he made that picture? Do we see why he cares about it? Do we want to do what we can to help God preserve it?
