In Profile

I wonder how many flower photographs I’ve taken over the years. As I look at a folder about to burst from so many beautiful flowers, it dawns on me that I am a full-face photographer. Smile! Look at the camera! Click, and the lovely flower is captured, straight on. But I think I will add to those “open wide, say aaaaaah” shots some profiles because that perspective tells a different story. There is beauty still, but of a different sort…the colors vary, the support system is revealed, branches and leaves make the flower even more attractive. I just need to remind myself to change perspective once in a while, look at things from a different direction.

Works with people, too. The old saying: “Never judge a book by its cover” makes sense here. If all you want is a colorful book for display or decoration, then the cover alone will do. But it’s the story between the covers that counts. People are so multi-dimensional, so diverse in life experience, beliefs, personal opinions and attitudes and to miss those characteristics is to miss the real person. A word of advice and a word of caution: be a good listener; don’t do all the talking. Affirm and appreciate differences; be open to diversity. Be grateful for your friend’s willingness to share; hold it all gently. Caution: the risk in changing perspective is that the new perspective might change you. I think truth or insight are revealed when I dare to open my certainty to possibility. I think, too, that’s the way the Spirit works. That’s one of the important things I hear from the Risen One, that’s what he taught in his life. Look at the world from a different direction, try the new, don’t just shoot pictures of flowers from one direction because a different beauty is in the profile.

Just something to think about as the sun comes up on a Thursday morning. Thanks be to Christ who leads us to the fullness of life.