I read that spring is optimism personified. If this is true, I would say faith is staring at winter fearless and hopeful. Faith has dark and cloudy days and flowerless landscapes but it feels the hope and the reward of perseverance.
I have today, on the board behind my computer monitor, a picture titled ‘Spring Daffodils’. Green leaves on a blue background with one pink and one dark blue flower. It wouldn’t win any awards but today I would rather have this crayon drawing than any Rembrandt. It was a gift to me from two girls on my bus route and when I no longer have the picture I will still cherish the memory of receiving it.
I have not had a beautiful spring day. It was a “one foot in front of the other” day. Small conflicts and minor disappointments and a chilly-breezy day left me less than inspired. The kind of day that would never be remembered except for this one little kindness.
We are told we must come to God as a child; innocence of a child and faith of a child; trusting as a child. Today reminded me that sometimes God comes to us as a child. When we are at our worst God takes the form of innocence and vulnerability and hands you a flower picture and softens your heart.
I watched a video about a police sketch artist who took a group of early/middle-aged people he had never seen and asked them to describe themselves while hidden from his view. He sketched them as they saw themselves.
Each person in the group then met someone else in the group and was later asked to describe that person to the sketch artist as he made another drawing based on their description.
Each person was permitted to see the two sketches of themselves. Many got tears in their eyes because the picture of how others saw them was much more beautiful than how they saw themselves.
How do you see yourself? Do you look at yourself every day and keep putting yourself in this box of second rate goods? Do you slander the Creator declaring yourself flawed or simply generic humanity? Or do you avoid looking at your reflection because what you see in the mirror somehow diminishes what you are?
Here is the question…Is it possible to walk closely with God and like the way you look? I think it is not only possible I think it is imperative. How can you say you trust and rely totally on God and look in the mirror and not like what you have been given? The scriptures say to love your neighbor as you love yourself. If you are critical of your own appearance you will most likely think critically of your neighbor’s appearance.
In the video, the sketch most people got from their own description was far less happy and warm than the one that came from the description of others. I think when we look into the face of others, we see, not so much who they are but who they love. People who truly love their neighbor as themselves are a blessing to be around because they remind us we are lovable…God has truly made you lovable so walk closely with God and light up the place!
My face in the mirror is not better nor worse than any other face in the mirror, but it’s mine and it smiles back at me. Sometimes my face is filled with springtime optimism and other times it is wintery and it is then it finds hope in the drawings of a child.