I started the New Year pretty much wordless. 

Then. 

Whammo.

Inspiration. Motivation. New thoughts and ideas just flew at me, when I wasn’t expecting them.

Come down the wriggly, twisting rabbit hole with me….come join me on this adventure….

——————————–

Our first church service for the year ‘went off the hook’ to speak like a young trendy thing that I’m not. But it did. It was a great service, with a visiting guest speaker who was articulate, passionate and infectious and spoke a God breathed and inspired message. 

The speaker, Kindra, looked at Lamentations and of how ‘the steadfast love of the Lord never ceases’. She mentioned that the Hebrew work for ‘steadfast love’ is ‘hesed’, and ‘hesed’ has unfortunately not always, in every instance been translated correctly in different parts of holy scriptures. For as much as it refers to the steadfast love of God in its original usage, it also referred to the steadfast love that we as people in general should have for each other. 

Steadfast love.

Yep I thought. 

I want that for others. That’s a thing to aim for.

Then I got to thinking that steadfast love is going to be lived out differently in and through different people. We all have different roles to play and what I’m called to do is always going to be different to what you’re called to do. 

But it has occurred to me that it all, ‘all’ being this steadfast, unwavering, unshakeable love, starts at the same point, for each and every one of us. 

And that point I believe is to see people as Jesus would see them. All people.

To see all people as beloved.

Cherished.

Worthy.

Unique.

Valuable.

Equal.

This is quite the rabbit hole. I’m only just getting started.

———————————

My teenage son is quite the avid photographer. He’s saving his pennies for a new and better camera and has been quizzing his Grandad over brands and recommendations and specs and suchlike. Among Grandad’s selection of hats he’s worn so far, he’s had camera shop owner added to the bunch, so he’s a good person for our kid to get free advice from. 

From all this talk Ive learnt that the bodies of cameras are pretty standard and many brands are on an even playing field. What sets a great camera apart from a good camera is the lens put on it. And the lens brand doesn’t have to be the same as the body of the camera, as long as the body of the camera was designed to accept other brands.

Down this rabbit hole I’m in, I’ve discovered that we are like the body of a camera. We can function just ok by ourselves, but when you stick a good lens on us, we can zero in on things that really matter. We can capture precious moments in time and make good memories. With a good lens on us we really can make a difference. We can see things for what they really are. And that lens is Jesus’ eyes. 

We’re pretty limited in our functionality as just a basic body. We’re sometimes frail. We second guess ourselves. We get hung up on looks and appearances. But there’s huge freedom when we let that all go, and can just rest in who we truly are and then when we partner that with contentment with knowing WHOSE we are, and then allow God to work in and through us and over time our Jesus eyes become sharper and things come in focus better….

When things go wrong with cameras it’s usually one of two things. Sometimes it can be that the power source isn’t good enough. The batteries aren’t charged properly. Hello? Nuff said, right? And another comon problem is dirt on the lens. A speck of dirt, seemingly naked to the eye…isn’t naked to the eye when it is somewhere in or on a camera lens. It can ruin every image taken. That’s kinda why my own eyes aren’t the best lenses for my life. I screw up. My perspectives are often way off what they could and should be. I’m tainted by own sense of justice. My lens is not reliable. God’s one is so much better in every way.

The thing with cameras and lenses is we can all start off with basic camera bodies. But we get to choose which lens to put on.  

We get to choose how to see the world around us.

We get to choose how to see people. All people.

And that’s a blessed privilege and amazing challenge and crazy honour all rolled up into one. 

Quite the rabbit hole.