Upon arriving home from their vacation, the family discovered that together they had taken over 600 pictures. Digital cameras are grand. One does not have to pay for all that processing only to discover 400 of the 600 pictures are not worth keeping. Of course taking the pictures is only the first step toward having something worth victimizing relative and friends with by making them look at all our vacation pictures. Pictures that are worth looking at need to be carefully brightened, darkened, dodged, cropped, color balanced and have the red eyes removed. It takes 1/500 of a second to take the picture and fifteen minutes, if you are efficient, to get it looking good.
Salvation is like that. We are saved in a fraction of a second, but it takes a lifetime of enhancement to get us looking good. There is so much brightening, cropping, color balancing that needs to be done.
Job 1:8 where God asks Satan if he has looked at Job is rather like asking people to look at your vacation pictures. God was happy with Job and wanted to show him off. Satan of course was not so happy and we all know what happened next.
Sometimes in our “snapshots” we look rather pathetic; however, I am so glad God is willing to brighten, crop, and color balance us so that we don’t have to continue to look like that 1/500 of a second snapshot.
Written June 25, 2004