There is no picture for this post…

Which is strange since the whole post is about pictures…

Then again.. maybe it’s not so strange since the post is really about not taking pictures…

Read on…

You’ll see what I mean…

The story begins at sunset in a large crowd in a park.

Four teenage girls start taking pictures of each other.

In the growing dark, the flash from their camera is startling…

People gasp as it goes off…

As the pictures continue, gasping turns to grumbling.

How many pictures can they possibly take?

There are only four of them.

They take a series of pictures… three people in each shot..

The fourth rotating into the role of photographer…

The camera flashes for a fourth time.

They’re done, I think.

Wrong.

“Let’s do it again on my camera,”  says one teenager.

And so they do…

Four more pictures.

It’s darker now…

The flash more noticeable

People in the crowd flinch each time the it goes off…

Another four pictures for the next camera…

Four more for the final camera…

“Finally,” I think, “they are finished.”

Wrong. Again.

“Let’s do it one more time! shouts one of the picture takers…

“This time, let’s all make funny faces.”

“Wait till we post these pictures online.”

Thirty minutes later their cameras are still flashing…

While they take the pictures, a really good band plays on stage.

Off to one side the sun sets…

Turning the clouds into bright shades of red and orange and purple.

They don’t hear the band or see the sunset…

They are too busy living in their own moment.

I wonder…

How often am I like them?

How often am I so busy picturing my own moment…

My own treasure…

For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. Luke 12:34

My own worries…

Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life…Matthew 6:25

That I cannot even picture the world around me?

Cannot picture God in the beauty of a world that reflects His Glory…

 For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made…Romans 1:20

Note: This post first appeared in July 2015