Partly Pretty

I Corinthians 13:20 -- "Now we see but a poor reflection, as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known."

It could be said that our society - life as we know it - has changed in some pretty big ways since the invention and development of television. As I have heard it so often, there are a lot of negative side effects due to this man-made form of addictive entertainment. Just think about all the adult cartoons, the trends in less than attractive slang, and the fashion gimmicks with which we are bombarded fairly regularly.

There are, however - moments in visual broadcasting that have absolutely taken our breath away. One minute, we are in our living room with our family and the next we are watching Neil Armstrong take humanity's first steps on the moon! I can see God at work in those moments. Look at all the works of His hands that we can see in those few steps taken on the soft, powdery dust sprinkled across our nearest celestial neighbor! It's truly amazing! Prior to that moment in television history no human knew what our moon really looked like. And better still - we'd never seen a photograph of our great blue marble spinning perfectly as it hangs in just the right spot of vast space!

In our particular neck of global space and time we have been provided with more opportunity to see the beauty and wonder of God's creation than any other human moment in history! I'm thankful for that.

image: company7.com

This past week, two - count 'em - TWO unique expressions of God's love for us flittered into this head of mine through the magic of digital television. I have been deeply inspired by our boob tube!. . .

Walking through the great number of parks in our little corner of Florida I have photographed some absolutely gorgeous plant life in vibrant hues with blooms so full they seem to burst into life all at once. I mean, I think they are just down right beautiful! Breathtaking! Colorful! But watching a PBS program the other day I learned that there is even more splendor in those blossoms than that upon which my eyes are capable of focus. Flowers often have this other-worldly spectrum of color that only certain insects and pollinators can see! We can't see the longer, lower frequency light in infrared spectroscopy. But flowers emit on this wave length all the time. Bees can see it! So even as we stand in awe of the perfect rose petal or peaceful water lily - there is even more beauty there than we could possibly imagine! Through the lenses of a pollinator's eyes we would be able to see that the colors pop out and gracefully sing the siren song of color and nectar. Perspective is EVERYTHING!

Earth through the rings of Saturn. Image: CICLOPS.org

There we are!! Image: CICLOPS.org

When a beloved friend stopped by my house the other day to give me an impromptu gift she'd found at a thrift store - we sat together in my bedroom catching up on the goings on of life. In the background on the television, Mike Rowe was giving us some rather interesting facts about the moons in our solar system - when this amazing photo of Saturn spread across the screen in wonderful high definition color! It was a back-lit image of the rings around the planet as a tiny portion of the sun peeked out from just underneath. We both kind of stopped talking and feasted on the visual splendor. We thought it was amazing just as we saw it - but then the editor highlighted a tiny white dot just to the left - seemingly imbedded in the outer rings of the planet. It wasn't one of Saturn's moons - it was Earth as seen by the Cassini spacecraft in 2004. I think my mouth just kind of hung open for a moment. I can't even begin to describe what was going on in my head - how awesome is our God! How so very amazing His love for us! Oh the vast wonder of His works!

Never have the words of Paul become so clear and focused in my life.  It's so true! Now we see but a fraction of who we are, where we are, and by Whom we were created! We are only seeing a tiny bit of the big picture! The more we explore, the bigger the whole picture seems to become - and all the more splendid is my tiny little place within it!

I am inspired to remember the image of the tiny white dot of Earth beyond the giant Saturn whenever things in my life seem to get too big and unmanageable. Especially because I know that on that tiny white dot - I am fully known by God! He even knows how many hairs keep turning gray on the top of my head! ...and to me - this planet of our seems pretty big! It's really not in the grand scheme of things - not when compared to Saturn, the solar system, ... or the universe! And if God knows every single little detail about one person on that tiny little dot - I'm pretty sure the thing in my life that I assumed was such a HUGE deal - IS, in fact - manageable! After all - my entire life is in God's hands!

God is so totally AWESOME!!