Tag Archives: colored bottles
365 Project Day 45: Vessels of Glory
Posted on 15. Feb, 2011 by maryanne.
Transparent Glory
Canon 5D Mark ll, 50mm1.2 L, 1.6 aperture, 1/640 aperture, 100 ISO
I was caught, enamored even, with this brilliant display this afternoon. I had moved the bottles from their previous place on a shelf to the window in kitchen. I was just passing through the kitchen on my way out the door to the mall. I saw the bottles, the light, the colors, and suddenly nothing else seemed important. I was in. I never made it to the mall. (rescued!) I got my gear and tried nearly every perspective endeavoring to capture what my spirit was feeling. It wasn’t enough to capture the bottles sitting in the window. I had to move them around, everywhere I could find a square of sunshine and then move my lens to the places where the colors were the most striking. When Katie came in and saw me on the floor leaning over bottles and asked me what I was doing, I said I was “playing”. And I was. These are the best moments in my photography. I am having a conversation with myself, with God, and even with my inanimate objects. ” Thank you, Father, so beautiful.” Now, maybe this way.” “No the other way was better.” ” No, they are not straight…” “Beautiful!” sigh. These are all typical.
The photo reminds me so much of us as people and the glory we all carry within us. We are the best we will ever be when the Light of God is shining through us. Otherwise, we are often just a colored bottle on a shelf. We can try to shine, but unless He moves us to the window and shines through us, our efforts are in vain. If these bottles were full of objects or a substance of any kind (besides clear water), the effect would not be the same. It seems empty vessels shine the most brilliantly. Emptied out of our own efforts, we finally show our truest and best colors in the luminous sun.
This is so hard to learn, especially on a Monday, when that list is up and at me again, reminding me of all I need to be doing. It is a false list. I love how Ann Voskamp addresses this in her book One Thousand Gifts, “ I stop the spinning thoughts, the probing questions, the hands sorting, the laundry work, because God needs knees more than hands.” I love that. So much more can be accomplished, enjoyed even, when we give over the worries of our lives to a competent and strong God who cares for us.
And So I empty myself once again, and wait in the sunlight for the glory to shine. Think of it, no prism, no lens flare, no rainbow, no color coming through a bottle, no twinkle in the eye, exists without light. The Light. I am a light chaser, in my photography and in my life.
Psalm 118:27~ ” The LORD is God, and he has made his light shine on us”.
John 8:12~ “When Jesus spoke again to the people, he said, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”
Shine on. Can’t wait to see your colors.
Bottles in Sunlight
Afternoon Stretch
Color Feast
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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?
