Lessons from Flowers

As folks who know me can attest, I enjoy photographing flowers of all kinds. I don’t delight in making or maintaining the garden itself, but I do love it when I have an opportunity to photograph the flowers in other folks’ gardens. Fortunately, sweet friends often invite me over to photograph the beautiful results of their hard work. And my husband and I are blessed to be able to travel a good bit, too. When we’re “on the road,” we’re always on the lookout for parks, botanical gardens, plant nurseries, businesses with flowers out front, hanging basket lining the city sidewalks, courtyard in the downtown area, small gardens near entrances to the hotels where we stay, etc.

Although gardens require a good bit of money, time, attention, and hard work, wildflowers don’t. Quite the contrary! They just appear in various places and seem to do very well without human intervention. Many of my favorite “flower photos” are of wildflowers--and also weeds with beautiful blooms. I even love dandelion blooms and seed heads.

Because of my love of beautiful blooms, these three verses in Isaiah 40 captured my attention: “All flesh is grass, and all its loveliness is like the flower of the field. The grass withers, the flower fades, when the breath of the LORD blows upon it; surely the people are grass. The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God stands forever” (vv.6-8, New American Standard Bible).

These verses point out how temporal our lives are. Even though we, like the grasses of the field, bloom and flourish for a time, we will not be here forever. We, like the grasses, will wither and fade; and those who pass by where we used to live may scarcely remember us—if at all.

Yet, God, who is eternal, created us for His good pleasure and lets us live and flourish for a season, as He does the wildflowers and the grasses of the field. In fact, Jesus referred to the beauty of the grasses of the field when He was reminding His followers not to worry about what they would eat or drink or wear. “And why are you anxious about clothing? Observe how the lilies of the field grow; they do not toil nor do they spin, yet I say to you that even Solomon in all his glory did not clothe himself like one of these. But if God so arrays the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the furnace, will He not much more do so for you, O men of little faith?” (Matthew 6:28-30, NASB).

 

Thus, we should not worry about our lives, but simply bloom where God has planted us and let our lives testify to HIS glory and goodness.

 (C) 2014 by Johnnie Ann Gaskill

Drip! Drip! Drip!

Drip. Drip. Drip. One drop followed another, each splashing into a glass bowl half-filled with water. Our assignment was to photograph a drop after it hit the water and splashed upward. That was easier said than done!

Some of the 11 photographers who were trying to accomplish that ended up with a few beautiful images. As you might guess, not every picture was a keeper. One photographer said she tried more than 50 times to get a shot she liked. I finally managed to snap a few pictures of drops as they rebounded from the water; but, alas, none of mine were sharply focused. Therefore, I won’t be able to use them in any way. However, I plan to keep a few of the best ones on my hard drive, since they represent my first attempt at photographing a water droplet in motion.

Frequently throughout the all-day photography workshop, we had to use an empty detergent bottle to suction out the excess water in our bowls. I was surprised at how quickly the bowls filled up. After all, there was only one drop falling at a time. Drip. Drip. Drip. Yet, those individual drops made a difference!

A few days after the workshop, I listened to a speech that had been given at a photography workshop a year ago. The speaker reminded everyone that sales, even little ones, do add up. “It’s like water dripping from a faucet,” she said. “Drip. Drip. Drip. Your little successes may not seem like much, but, over time, they’ll add up.”

Her words encouraged me, not only in regard to photography, but to life in general. Little things we do consistently and to the best of our ability will, over time, make a difference.

For example, since I’ve rejoined The Wellness Center, I’m hearing about dramatic changes in many of the people who go there regularly to exercise. One friend has lost over 40 pounds. Another now has a full range of motion in knees that once were too stiff and sore to move very much. Another has lowered (significantly!) her blood pressure and cholesterol.

These changes didn’t happen overnight. Like the drip, drip, drip of the water, the frequent visits to the Wellness Center, over time, slowly added up, making a noticeable difference.

Rather than just sitting around wishing, hoping, and praying for change, the clients are working day by day to achieve their fitness goals. And, as I said, they are experiencing remarkable success.

No matter where we want to go in life or what we want to achieve, we reach our goal step by step by step, don’t we? Whether it’s restoring order to a cluttered space or training for a career, we do it bit by bit by bit.

As I reflected on all these things, I recalled a parable (an earthly story with a spiritual application) Jesus told. In the story, three servants are called to appear before their master to give an account of how they had managed the money he had given to them to use while he had been away. Two servants had managed the money wisely; one had not.

Read all about it in the 25th chapter of Matthew. Notice what the master said when he commended the two wise servants: “You have been faithful in handling this small amount, so now I will give you many more responsibilities. Let’s celebrate together!” (verses 21 and 23).

Being faithful in little things really does matter! So, let’s consistently take the small steps needed to get us to wherever we want to go. Step. Step. Step.

©2010 by Johnnie Ann Burgess Gaskill. For permission to use the photos and/or the text, please contact her.

Eyes That See

“Oh, my goodness! Come and look at this!” I said to my two oldest grandsons (ages 12 and 9) as I viewed the photos I’d taken earlier that day. “You can see the little straw-like thing that the butterfly is using to sip the nectar from the lantana!”

As we discussed the photo, I said, “I believe that little straw is called a proboscis.” A quick search on the Internet confirmed that.

Although I’ve taken lots of pictures of butterflies, I’ve either never taken a shot as sharp as the one I’d captured that day or else I’ve simply failed to notice the proboscis. But there it was!

That set me to thinking about how the Creator designed everything in great detail. No wonder, then, as He was creating the world and all that was in it, He often looked over His work and noted that it was good. (See Genesis, chapter 1.)

Photography enables me to get a closer look at His handiwork than I could with my natural eye. For example, I use a zoom lens to take a digital photo and then upload the image to my computer where I can magnify it even more, allowing me to see incredible details that I might have missed.

Thinking about this makes me wonder what else I’ve been failing to see, even though my physical eyesight is good (as long as I’m wearing my glasses).

As Jesus pointed out many centuries ago, “…people see what I do but they don’t really see. They hear what I say, but they don’t really hear, and they don’t understand. This fulfills the prophecy of Isaiah [6:9-10], which says, ‘You will hear my words, but you will not understand; you will see what I do, but you will not perceive its meaning. For the hearts of these people are hardened, and their ears cannot hear, and they have closed their eyes—so their eyes cannot see, and their ears cannot hear, and their hearts cannot understand, and they cannot turn to me and let me heal them’” (Matthew 13:13-15).

Since it is possible to have eyes that can see quite well yet often fail to see the incredible details all around us, it’s no wonder that we also fail to “see” (discern) deeper truths.

Thus, I hope that you, Dear Reader, and I will regularly use the words in the old hymn, “Open My Eyes That I May See,” as a prayer. Oh, how we need to see spiritual truths and to discern God’s will.

©2010 by Johnnie Ann Burgess Gaskill, http://www.jgaskill.com/.