Photography and Trees have Some Things in Common

While I do love taking pictures, I don't know much about photography. Okay, I know next to nothing. Basically, I know how to push the buttons, I know that changing the settings from "snow" to "party" hardly make any difference, how to load photos and change the focus. It's a pleasure to look at things in a different way, and try to capture them. But when it all boils down, I'm the point and shoot type!

One thing I do know, however, is that light is a key component to any photograph. Light, my friends, is the answer to your photography woes. (You do have them, of course?) It is light that makes us stop and look at a photo. It is light that makes it clear and interesting. It is light, that will make a photograph stand out from all your other dark pictures.

Lately, I have been thinking a lot about light. Horatius Bonar, a Scottish minister, said this of light:

"Let us shine. Stars indeed, not suns; but still stars, not candles or meteors. Let us shine! Giving perhaps a slender light, but that light certain and pure; enough to say to men, 'It is night', lest they mistake. Out light should be enough to guide the seeking or the erring in the true direction, though it is not enough to illuminate the world. The sun alone can do that. It is the sun that shows us the landscape, the stars show but themselves. Let us show ourselves beyond mistake. The day when all things shall be seen in full warm light is the day of the great sun-rising."

A few weeks ago I was going on a walk, and I was pondering the fact that Christians are a lot like trees. Really! Think of the deep roots we are to have, the fruit we are to bear, and our arms that are to be raised to our King. And as I thought about this, I happened to look up at a strip of trees, and behind them was a gorgeous, breath-taking sunset.

Had the leaves still been on the trees, you would have only been able to see a little glimmer of that beautiful sunset. But no, the leaves were gone. And behind them was a glorious sunset.

Friends in Christ, it is vital the our roots be deep, our faith strong, our arms raised to Jesus, and that we are bearing the fruit of Christ. But what is most important, above all else, is that Christ is simply radiating through us in a mighty way.

You see, photography and we "Christian trees" have some things in common--it's all about light!