Faith, Unfiltered

I recently discovered filters—those magical lighting and color changes you can apply to photos.  I’m a proud mom to three cats, and since I’ve found filters, my poor cats have been stalked by me as though by the most persistent TMZ paparazzo.  They know the sound when I take my phone out and turn the camera on.  And they hate it.  I follow them around the house with my camera—“Seamus!  Look at Mommy!”  “Carrick—show Mommy your adorable face!” Yesterday, I could have sworn that I saw Seamus roll his eyes when I got my phone out.

But it’s so much fun!  I can take a picture of one of them, apply a filter, and elevate their photo to a work of art.  I’ve discovered that Seamus looks his most beautiful when I brighten his color.  Carrick is more adorable than ever when I use a filter that’s monochromatic so that his eyes are the highlight of the photo.  And Mackin, with his striped grey fur, looks like an Ansel Adams portrait when I use a black and white filter.  Really, these filters are a cat mom’s dream.  And it’s not just filters.  I’ve discovered how to crop my photos, how to enlarge details, even how to change the focus if I mess up and don’t have the center right.  My boys are like a walking art gallery.

Wouldn’t it be nice if we could apply all of this to our daily lives?  If we could take our day, and before we go to bed, recast it in the best possible light?  John Denver famously sang, “Some days are diamonds; some days are stones.”  I think it would be wonderful if we could, at the end of a day that was more of a stone than a diamond, edit it like a photo.  We could crop out the people who wandered into the photo and ruined it with their negativity.  We could delete the parts of the day that we’d rather forget.  And we could apply those magical filters to the good moments so that they’re brighter, more cinematic, more memorable.

At the end of the day, though, my only real filter is my faith.  I have to constantly remind myself to see life through the lens of faith.  I have to trust that the people who I may see as rude photo bombers are actually people that God put in my path for a reason—for me to learn from, smile at, even minister to.  I have to rely on God to point out the details of daily living that I need to focus on—the behaviors I need to edit out; the attributes I need to enhance.

And I need to remember that God always, always sees me in the best light.  I’m so proud of my boys when I take a good photo of them—can you imagine our proud Father when He gets to watch us highlighting our best qualities?  We are walking representatives of His light—I don’t want people’s impression of God to be blurred because I’m acting horribly unfiltered and miserably unedited.  I want to be the diamond God sees me as, even when I act, think, and look like a stone.  Even when I roll my eyes at the tasks He gives me.

I’m never going to stop taking pictures of my boys; I’m never going to stop trying for the perfect photo.  I’d like to think that God will keep trying to catch me in my good moments.  I’d like to make my Father proud.  Max Lucado said, “If God had a refrigerator, your picture would be on it. If He had a wallet, your photo would be in it.” Imagine—your picture on God’s refrigerator!  Unfiltered.  Unedited.  Just you—caught in a moment where you are highlighted living as He created you to live.  That kind of picture would make any parent proud—I know.  I have some amazing pictures of my boys to prove it.