When my images or words don't make the grade...

If a Picture paints a thousand words…

In this case it was a photograph…or many, taken on a recent trip around New Zealand.

My husband and I love New Zealand. It’s a photographer’s heaven on earth! Around every corner, at every roadside stop, from every window, a vision of The Creator’s handiwork was there to capture. And so, I did! Thousands of photos over the three weeks there!

Then, in the last few days, as I began to review the images I’d captured, I realised my amateur photography” skills” …or lack thereof, had not done justice to the awe and wonder of all I had seen and experienced in those moments of pure heart response to my surroundings. Having deleted hundreds of photos in my disappointment, I can remember sitting in the car looking out the window, asking God how I could possibly capture and maintain the awe I was feeling as I looked around me. I mean, it was palpable!

I have some understanding of the geological process and forces of nature that have been in play in the history of this country, that have produced the landforms, created the climate and ecosystems, dictated the colour of the lakes in their brilliant blues, scraped out the wide gravelled riverbeds and glacial valleys, and caused the uplift that sees mountains jagged tops scratching at the sky.

I had hoped to capture that in photos to recreate the feelings I’d experienced and my worship of God…the fullness of my awe at His handiwork and the smallness of man. Just think, this was all created with yours and my enjoyment and wonder in mind.

Scripture tells us this in Romans 1:19,20.

“In reality, the truth of God is known instinctively, for God has embedded this knowledge inside every heart. Opposition to truth cannot be excused on the basis of ignorance, because from the creation of the world, God’s invisible qualities…His eternal power and divine nature…have been clearly seen. He has made His wonderful attributes easily perceived, for seeing the visible makes us understand the invisible.”

As I read this verse, suddenly it becomes clear that what I was feeling in those extraordinary moments where my heart was moved by my vision, was impossible to capture in a mere photographic image!

This is so beautifully conveyed in the words of this song…” IF” by BREAD,

If a picture paints a thousand words

Then why can’t I paint you.

The world can never show.

The You I’ve come to know…

During the holiday, I was involved in an online experience in the evenings with Mark Virkler, a pastor, author and educator in Hearing God’s Voice, about “Dialoguing with God” and on this particular day, a journalling exercise question was asked,

“God, what do you want to say to me about seeing You everywhere, always”?

The answer to that very question, is in that very verse in Romans. Yet in my journalling, I listened to what He wanted to say directly to me, and I share it here, for though it is personal, I think it speaks to anyone.

“Let’s use your photography as an “image” of your current experiences of Me. You try so hard to “capture the moment” knowing you are only able to produce a postage stamp of what’s before you, missing the full experience…the 180–360-degree experience, with all its movement, colour, smells…and the tangible and intangible senses and context. It’s impossible to encapsulate in that image, your emotional response to what you are seeing, in that moment.

You ask Me how you might seize and maintain the awe and majesty of your immediate response to Me in that experience of you looking outward…. how to communicate your inward heart/head experience? You ask how to bring that one postage stamp image, and the enormity of that moment in time into sharp focus to relive the emotion of it? Is it possible?

I am here, there and everywhere, not restrained by time. As you see things in the moment, they were made and done in another space and time beyond your frame of reference or capacity to understand. But My word gives you all you need to experience, by faith, the timelessness, majesty and awe of God…every syllable pregnant with the Creative Spirit of the Almighty God.

But then, you don’t need to go to New Zealand to participate in my glory. It’s in every flower in your garden, the laughter and recognition in the eyes of your grandson, the coming together of family around the lunch table, the smile of a perfect stranger. Live in awe of every sunrise, season and situation. I’m in it all.

Translate that into your passion and creative desire to show My creation, through your photography, your craft, your writing… My loving power on display for all to see. Let him who has eyes SEE! Every picture tells a story, every creative channel a means of expressing your awareness of the heart of God for all to experience.