Looking Like Something It Is Not
The new photos are outstanding! One in particular stands out. If any of you have downloaded this new package from Google you will know what I mean. It came with the package as a freebee. Amazing simply amazing.
In the middle of the screen is this round dark ball that looks something like you would use in soccer (or foot ball) to kick around. Surrounding the round dark mass is hundreds of white crystals – that look a lot like rice kernels. The title on the photo suddenly changes the whole idea. The words simply say “Salt and Pepper”.
This photo is so much like life in general. Life can be filled with so much that looks like something but it is not. The hidden contrasts are the upsetting anomalies. These small things do odd things to the mind. The mind rushes to make sense of what it is taking in and then tries to place some reference thoughts around the new images.
Yesterday for an example I saw a woman that had to be the most angry person on the street. She glared at the traffic that was passing. I could see her face clearly. The wrinkles together with her scowl was all the evidence anyone needed. I saw other people looking at her as well. She was about to cross the street in front of me. No way I was going to come near her with my vehicle.
Then she looked at the person next to her and said something. Her face was transformed in an instant. The wrinkles accented her beautiful smile. The words coming from her made the person next to her laugh. Then she turned back to the street again and the scowl came back. It was then that I realized that she was looking directly into the sun which was dazzling. In my vehicle it wasn’t that bright but on the street corner it was almost blinding. I looked at her friend that she had spoken to and her face revealed a struggle with the sun light as well – just not as many wrinkles.
I was with some one this week that suffers a tremendous amount of pain when she moves. It seems that pain is in every joint of her body. You can see it on her face as she moves gingerly from position to position. The pain is a burden she bears all the time. I said something to her and she beamed from ear to ear with her response. What showed through at that moment was not her hurting joints but her dazzling spirit. She radiates and that is likely one of the reasons that so many people want to be near her all the time. She is amazing.
So much of what surrounds us looks like something that it is not. Our poor old brains are fooled easily by the stimulus that comes in.
On the positive side it is this first look that catches the attention and brings people back to look again. This is true for the poor wrinkled lady in front of my vehicle struggling with the sunshine and it is also true for the beauty pageant princess that is dazzling. Neither first look can tell you what is inside.
The startling thing that should grab all of us is… others are looking at us as we go about our business. I was caught off guard the other day with a side glance in a double mirror system in a store. It was a telling moment where I stopped, backed up and took a second look. Who was that old person that just past me going the opposite way? When I backed up and took another look it was ME… from a different angle… and the image was of a man in hurry with a deadly scowl on his face that simply said, “Get out of my way please. I am in a hurry!” I stopped and looked at the old guy in the mirror with deep concern – the young buck that he once was has vanished – now there is an old wrinkled geezer staring back at me. I stuck out my tongue and then grinned. Too funny. Then I looked around to see if anyone was watching. Thank goodness no one was there with me.
Some one asked the question of a piece of money, “What is its face value?” There was one thing written on it but it is worth far more with its age. As I looked at it I wondered how many places it had been over all these years. How many places it has traveled and how many sights it had seen…probably mostly in someone’s pocket or purse. Just imagine if the old coin had ears – would it ever have a story to tell!
I like to think that behind the multitude of wrinkles and mountains of gray hair there is far more inside.
Give that beautiful young lady a few years of life and she will be standing on a street corner glaring at the sun as well. Then let her walk past that double mirror and see if she stops to take a second look.
I am thankful of one powerful fact… God does see it the way that others do. He can see way past the scowl and the tear and then laughter and the sullen look – he sees me… and you for who we are. He knows the real me and isn’t discouraged or turned of with what is in front of him.
One final image that sticks deeply in my collection of people memories came yesterday. It happened in the hospital. I entered the room to see one of the elderly men that I work with. He is in the pre-palliative ward of our health care system. Beside him is another man that is even lower in physical abilities. The second man lies with his mouth open most of the time. No teeth in produces a gapping hole in his face. He was struggling yesterday.
His wife came into the room. She walked over to his bed and leaned over kissing him on the cheek and said, “ Hi handsome. How are you doing today?” His wide mouth changed and he smiled from deep inside. This was his lover for so many years. She was there for him now – the world could come and go but she was there. In a glimmer I caught a small snapshot of their love. When I asked her how long they had been married, her rely was with a smile through her wrinkles, “57 years this coming fall. We have been through a lot together – haven’t we dad?” Then she squeezed his hand.
For the rest of this week I want to look a little closer. I really want to see what is happening around me. Most important for me – I want to see who is around me. I would love to see what God sees – potential and possibility.
~ Pastor Murray Lincoln ~
In the middle of the screen is this round dark ball that looks something like you would use in soccer (or foot ball) to kick around. Surrounding the round dark mass is hundreds of white crystals – that look a lot like rice kernels. The title on the photo suddenly changes the whole idea. The words simply say “Salt and Pepper”.
This photo is so much like life in general. Life can be filled with so much that looks like something but it is not. The hidden contrasts are the upsetting anomalies. These small things do odd things to the mind. The mind rushes to make sense of what it is taking in and then tries to place some reference thoughts around the new images.
Yesterday for an example I saw a woman that had to be the most angry person on the street. She glared at the traffic that was passing. I could see her face clearly. The wrinkles together with her scowl was all the evidence anyone needed. I saw other people looking at her as well. She was about to cross the street in front of me. No way I was going to come near her with my vehicle.
Then she looked at the person next to her and said something. Her face was transformed in an instant. The wrinkles accented her beautiful smile. The words coming from her made the person next to her laugh. Then she turned back to the street again and the scowl came back. It was then that I realized that she was looking directly into the sun which was dazzling. In my vehicle it wasn’t that bright but on the street corner it was almost blinding. I looked at her friend that she had spoken to and her face revealed a struggle with the sun light as well – just not as many wrinkles.
I was with some one this week that suffers a tremendous amount of pain when she moves. It seems that pain is in every joint of her body. You can see it on her face as she moves gingerly from position to position. The pain is a burden she bears all the time. I said something to her and she beamed from ear to ear with her response. What showed through at that moment was not her hurting joints but her dazzling spirit. She radiates and that is likely one of the reasons that so many people want to be near her all the time. She is amazing.
So much of what surrounds us looks like something that it is not. Our poor old brains are fooled easily by the stimulus that comes in.
On the positive side it is this first look that catches the attention and brings people back to look again. This is true for the poor wrinkled lady in front of my vehicle struggling with the sunshine and it is also true for the beauty pageant princess that is dazzling. Neither first look can tell you what is inside.
The startling thing that should grab all of us is… others are looking at us as we go about our business. I was caught off guard the other day with a side glance in a double mirror system in a store. It was a telling moment where I stopped, backed up and took a second look. Who was that old person that just past me going the opposite way? When I backed up and took another look it was ME… from a different angle… and the image was of a man in hurry with a deadly scowl on his face that simply said, “Get out of my way please. I am in a hurry!” I stopped and looked at the old guy in the mirror with deep concern – the young buck that he once was has vanished – now there is an old wrinkled geezer staring back at me. I stuck out my tongue and then grinned. Too funny. Then I looked around to see if anyone was watching. Thank goodness no one was there with me.
Some one asked the question of a piece of money, “What is its face value?” There was one thing written on it but it is worth far more with its age. As I looked at it I wondered how many places it had been over all these years. How many places it has traveled and how many sights it had seen…probably mostly in someone’s pocket or purse. Just imagine if the old coin had ears – would it ever have a story to tell!
I like to think that behind the multitude of wrinkles and mountains of gray hair there is far more inside.
Give that beautiful young lady a few years of life and she will be standing on a street corner glaring at the sun as well. Then let her walk past that double mirror and see if she stops to take a second look.
I am thankful of one powerful fact… God does see it the way that others do. He can see way past the scowl and the tear and then laughter and the sullen look – he sees me… and you for who we are. He knows the real me and isn’t discouraged or turned of with what is in front of him.
One final image that sticks deeply in my collection of people memories came yesterday. It happened in the hospital. I entered the room to see one of the elderly men that I work with. He is in the pre-palliative ward of our health care system. Beside him is another man that is even lower in physical abilities. The second man lies with his mouth open most of the time. No teeth in produces a gapping hole in his face. He was struggling yesterday.
His wife came into the room. She walked over to his bed and leaned over kissing him on the cheek and said, “ Hi handsome. How are you doing today?” His wide mouth changed and he smiled from deep inside. This was his lover for so many years. She was there for him now – the world could come and go but she was there. In a glimmer I caught a small snapshot of their love. When I asked her how long they had been married, her rely was with a smile through her wrinkles, “57 years this coming fall. We have been through a lot together – haven’t we dad?” Then she squeezed his hand.
For the rest of this week I want to look a little closer. I really want to see what is happening around me. Most important for me – I want to see who is around me. I would love to see what God sees – potential and possibility.
~ Pastor Murray Lincoln ~
posted by Murray Lincoln at
Thursday, August 02, 2007
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