Tag Archives: beauty
365 Project Day 38: Seeking
Posted on 08. Feb, 2011 by maryanne.
Edge of Beauty
Canon 5D Mark ll, 50 1.2L, 2.0 aperture, 1/125 shutter, 400 ISO
I flew out of the house just before the last light of day was gone. Not for my image of the day, not for any other reason, but to find the beauty. I had to. I was suffocating.
Sometimes I feel like the clouds, the cold, the utter exhaustion of enduring winter are going to smother the life from me. To top it off, it was Monday. What is it with Mondays? So hard on me, on my house. All the voices rattling off the lists of things to be done, things that aren’t done, things that feel too hard to do. Shhh, I say. Hush now.
It was cloudy and cold nearly all day. A sudden rain storm appeared just before sunset and then retreated as fast as it came. I threw on my coat and hat and grabbed my camera, gasping for air. Raining or not I was getting out there. I had to feel something, to find the beauty. Then, at nearly the end of my drive, I saw it. Creeping on elbows in soggy earth, I neared the edge of a glimmering puddle of fresh rain water. It had trailed down the drive to this very circle, this place at my fingertips. There, I found the beauty my soul craved. A circle of water clinging to the shimmering reflection of the sky. I breathed out a sigh of relief, and then in again, feeling the cold seep into my jeans and the elbows of my wool pea coat. Breathing again. Alive.
I feel Ann Voskamp says it so eloquently in her book “One Thousand Gifts”, this pursuit of beauty. ” A hunter trying to capture. And none of the shots are close enough, wide enough, radiant enough for the hunter. What is this that I feel sitting here, coursing through me relentless, hot ardent? I have to seek God beauty.”. Yes, that is it. God beauty. She goes on, ” Nature is not God, but God revealing the weight of Himself, all His glory, through the looking glass of nature.” So good.
May you find the beauty today. He is near.
Psalm 19:1-4 ~ “The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands.”
Clearer
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Dont ask for just a few
Posted on 28. Jul, 2010 by maryanne.
Recently I acquired all of these beautiful colored bottles for an upcoming shoot I am setting up. When I saw them sitting on the table together like this, I heard the line above in my head. “Don’t ask for just a few”. It is part of a story in scripture in 2Kings chapter 4 where a desperate woman approached the prophet Elisha and begged him for help. She was widowed and in debt, and the creditors were coming to take her sons away as payment. Pretty traumatic.
Elisha answers her plea with a strange question. “ Tell me, what do you have in your house?” She explains that she has nothing, except for a little oil. That was enough for Elijah. He then instructed her to go and ask her neighbors for empty jars. “Don’t ask for just a few”, he adds imperatively. She is then instructed to shut the door behind her and begin pouring her oil into the jars, and keep pouring until all the jars are full. The oil flowed until the vessels were gone. When she was done, she had enough oil to pay her debtors and then live off the rest. I wonder if she had wished she had asked for more. We tend to limit God by what we think we can have, rather than what we think He can give.
Thank God, I am not widowed or in jeopardy of creditors taking my children as payment, but I can relate to this business of collecting vessels to be filled with God’s provision, especially with provision that He has already given, like the widow’s small portion of oil. (What do you have in your house? I know I have photography for one.)
These vessels, these glass bottles, somehow represent that beautiful picture to me. God is always about filling our containers with His blessings, His glory. It is up to us to bring the cup. He is the drink, the oil, the blessing that we need.
Making time for Him is like bringing Him a colored bottle to fill. Holding it up to Him, empty and shining in His light, we wait for Him.
“Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for Him.” Psalm 37:7. Sigh. That scripture is a constant reminder for me these days. He is the filler. We are the vessel. The brightly colored bottle longing to be filled with His glory.
So, in an effort to make the truths I was feeling seem more tangible, I went out to find the glory to fill my bottles. The Zinnias were happy to help. I think they were waiting for the opportunity.
When you get your vessels, don’t ask for just a few. I mean, how much do you want?
