While tweeting the verse I noticed the topics trending included #WorldPhotoDay. World Photo Day is an international event on August 19th that celebrates the passion for photography by inspiring thousands of photographers across the planet to share a single photo with a simple purpose: to share their world with the world. (Paraphrased from the World Photo Day website) It worked. I immediately felt inspired to shot an image today that showed my little area of the planet and gave glory to the Master Artist who created it. The darkness of the early morning hour made me realize that I could easily get to a good spot about a mile down the road to take a sunrise photo, since it was about a half hour before the sun would come up.
I tweeted Just realized today is #WorldPhotoDay, maybe me waking up so flipping early was God's gift of a beautiful sunrise shot?, and then got ready to go. The moment I stepped outside the house I knew it wasn't happening. There was more than enough light to see by five minutes before sunrise, and the landscape around me felt muted and grey as the overcast day blocked any hope of seeing the sun. I felt disappointed and let down but went to take a photo anyway. Just because I couldn't get a sunrise shot didn't mean that I couldn't participate.
As I write this though I feel so grateful the morning went the way it did. If the sky had been clear and beautifully colored at sunrise I would have been thankful to God and excited, but I would have missed a blessing. I drove down the road and got in position to take the image I had envisioned, minus the sunrise, of course. A couple of minutes after official sunrise the scene before me began to change. The grass went from grayish blue and blah to green with yellow highlights. The blacktop road became more interesting to my eye. Though some grey remained, the blues in the sky became richer. I couldn't see the sun but I could most certainly see its effects. I had been completely wrong. I was taking a sunrise photograph.
The sun rose this morning. The overcast skies didn't change that. The sun rose, and the light from the sun still illuminated my view of the earth. The light seemed greatly hindered. I couldn't point to the spot in the sky where the sun would be, other than the general direction of East. There wasn't any hint of the silhouette in the sky. But the truth was that the light wasn't greatly hindered just because I couldn't see its source. I didn't need an extra light source. I didn't struggle to see, and the landscape was easily visible rather than formlessly dim. I didn't need a flash for the photo. The sun came up and illuminated the world as it does daily.
I realized as I snapped off a few frames that life feels this way sometimes. The day is dreary, and I become discouraged wishing God would show up, wishing He would rise into my day and make it better. But the clouds of my problems blocking my view don't change the fact and truth that He is present any more than the clouds in my sky this morning meant the sun didn't rise. If rather than becoming depressed that I can't see and have the Sonrise that I want, the obvious overwhelming beauty and awe of the presence of God, I instead open my eyes to my surroundings I will be more than able to see the hand of God on my life, changing the hues, saturating the grey with color, making life worth living and brighter even though the landscape of life remains overcast.
Sometimes God's presence isn't obvious. But there are signs He is there if we look, and there is a different but beautiful display of His glory in the overcast. The colors may be fewer, the light a little less bright, but the presence is powerful, even when we can not see the source. Today, don't let the situations of life make you believe God isn't with you. He is there, behind the clouds, illuminating your life and way.
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