Reflections and Images

On a calm day by a riverside, I snapped an extraordinary picture. Since I am not a good photographer, this was a total surprise. I didn't see the beauty of the picture until after I had taken it.

I didn't take this picture with a normal camera. It was taken with my Kindle Fire, which means I actually took it backwards (the Kindle Fire's camera is a front facing camera designed for the user to take a picture of himself). I was just playing around with the Kindle Fire and wanted to take a picture of the skyline in front of me.

Instead, I got much more than I imagined. Although clouds were casting a shadow on the landscape, the sun peeking through the clouds and branches made it possible not only to capture the skyline, but also its reflection.

On another day, I was experimenting again with the camera feature on my MacBook Air. The camera works the same way as the Kindle Fire's camera. This time, I took a self-portrait facing my computer with my back to a mirror, making an interesting picture.

This double image got me thinking. I did some research on how mirrors are made. With the help of a chemical process, a sheet of glass is coated with silver or aluminum. What is important is to make sure it is polished to perfection, removing any impurity. If any dip or impurity is not polished out, there will be distortions in the mirror.

Jesus the Image of God

He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation (Colossians 1:15).

Jesus came so that we might see God the Father. He is not a reflection of God. He is God. When we see Jesus, we see God. "He who has seen Me has seen the Father" (John 14:9). Any picture of Jesus includes an image of the invisible God - a little like my self-portrait. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God....In Him was life, and the life was the Light of men (John 1:1, 4).

Like the sun shining through the clouds to reveal the reflection of the skyline, Jesus, the Light of the world, shines through our dark clouds of sin. The resulting reflection exposes our sin nature. Those of us who see ourselves as God sees us, ask Him for forgiveness and trust Him as Savior.

Just as the impurities left in the glass distorts the mirror, sin in a Christian's life distorts the image of Christ. God is constantly working on polishing out those impurities so that His Son can be seen ... but like the Holy One who called you, be holy yourselves also in all your behavior; because it is written, "You shall be holy, for I am holy" (1 Peter 1:15-16).

God choses to reveal Himself to a lost world through His children. for you were formerly darkness, but now you are Light in the Lord; walk as children of Light (Ephesians 5:8) A little like the double image in my picture, when the world looks at a committed Christian, they should see the reflection of Christ in him. Others should be able to see Him by the lives we live and the love we express.

For those He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brethren (Romans 8:29).

New Life from What Seems to Be Dead Wood

I am always amazed at what nature does during spring.

I often see trees and bushes during the winter that I think should be cut down because they look really dead to me, but when spring rolls around, voila - new life appears on those branches.

The trees and bushes are still the same ones that were planted years ago, but there is a dramatic change in spring. Spindly sticks on dormant bushes are fed by water, sun and nourishment in the soil and come to life.

The ground that is totally brown during winter starts to green up in spring. Even some weeds are really pretty - clover, wildflowers, etc. There are times I am reluctant to mow my grass because I know I am going to mow over something beautiful (like bluebonnets in Texas!).

Gardens lighten the spirit and bring beauty to the world. When the drab, brown ground of winter is refreshed by the new green of spring, it seems that all things are possible.

We are somewhat like those dead branches. We need Someone to give us life. Without Jesus, we would stay in the dark throes of our winter forever. Reborn, renewed and refreshed by His Spirit, we can blossom and produce fruit.

With God all things are possible (Matthew 19:26 NASB). But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ - by grace you have been saved (Ephesians 2:4-5 ESV). Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come (2 Corinthians 5:17 NASB). "I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing" (John 15:5 NASB).

Glimpse of a Future Reality

Noah's Ark Animal Sanctuary - a nonprofit dedicated to caring for abused and neglected animals - houses over one thousand rescued animals on their 250 acres in Locust Grove (just south of Atlanta), Georgia. Among them is a trio who has garnered such attention that their story appeared on world news.

In 2001, a lion, tiger and bear were rescued from an abusive environment in a drug dealer's basement in Atlanta. The staff at the sanctuary tended to the wounds of these three and in time, they were completely healed.

Knowing that each one of these animals is a predator and could easily do harm to the others, the attempt was made to separate them for their own safety. The staff was not successful at that attempt.  Leo the lion, Shere Khan the tiger and Baloo the bear would not be separated. So they have lived together for twelve years. They suffered together, they came to the sanctuary together and together they will stay. An unlikely friendship, to be sure, but a foretaste of what God has planned for the future.

God gave the prophet Isaiah a vision of a time when that kind of friendship will be routine - when the Lord Jesus Christ will reign forever on His earth. As an animal lover - but realistically cautious when it comes to dangerous animals - I am eagerly looking forward to that day.

www.facebook.com/NoahsArkAnimalSanctuary

And the wolf will dwell with the lamb, and the leopard will lie down with the young goat, and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together; and a little boy will lead them. Also the cow and the bear will graze, their young will lie down together and the lion will eat straw like the ox (Isaiah 11:6-7).

The End of the Journey

My favorite way to travel in Europe is by train. It is vastly more comfortable, less complicated and in some cases actually shorter than air travel. With no security lines, you simply arrive at the train station a few minutes before departure, find the proper platform, look for the your car (the number of the car is on your ticket), get on with your luggage, find your assigned seat, place your luggage in the overhead, get settled and in due time a ticket agent comes round to verify and stamp your ticket. Seats are comfortable, there is plenty of leg room and you can get up and walk around.

Not only is the process of boarding a train more pleasurable than an airplane, so is departure. Arriving at your destination, you simply gather your belongings and get off. That's it. No hassle either way.

European railroads, placed strategically throughout beautiful countryside, enable you to enjoy incredible views. You can easily track where you are as stations are clearly marked. Your forward journey leads from one station to another  - straight ahead - until your final destination is announced.

I believe life is somewhat like my train trips. As my husband said in a sermon, we often view our lives in a cyclical movement like a watch - where time goes round and round and round again - with the possibility of repetition. Actually it is more like a cord that stretches out from birth to death. As each precious moment passes, a little of our time line is cut off so there is considerably less of the cord ahead of us than there is behind us.

Similar to traveling by train, life's time line moves straight ahead - station by station. Each station I leave behind - childhood, teenage years, young adult and so on - makes me realize how short life is. I will never repeat those years. They are all behind me.

As I continue to bury my loved ones, the reality of this hits hard. Tombstones record two dates: a birthdate and the day of death. Just like my train rides, their lives on earth have come to an end. Thankfully, I can say that their destination has been Heaven.

I am still on my journey, but someday it will be over. Like those who have gone before me, God will choose my time of departure.

My prayer is that, like Paul, when I greet the Lord I will have some fruit to give Him in gratitude that this life's journey is not all there is. As a believer, the end of my journey is the beginning of eternal life with Him.

Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in Me will live even if he dies, and everyone who lives and believes in Me will never die. Do you believe this?" (John 11:25-26). For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain. But if I am to live on in the flesh, this will mean fruitful labor for me.... (Philippians 1:21-22).