So my three and a half year old and I recently had this discussion:
3yo: Hi mommy! I found this. (showing me a piece of scrap wood from a staircase his father is building)
me: oh how nice. What shape is it?
3yo: a pyramid! (I was a little surprised he knew this)
me: well yes it is a pyramid. But what shape is this (drawing my finger around one side)?
3yo: a pyramid!
me: how about a triangle?
3yo: it is a pyramid mom! NOT A TRIANGLE...see it is 3D
This conversation with him got me thinking. Earlier that day I had sat in a room with a woman ready to die and wondering why God hadn't taken her yet. She was frustrated and upset with God, even though she still has much of her independence. Yet I also sat with a person who saw God's grace everywhere, that day in the clouds in the sky. Despite her age and her lack of abilities, she is happy. How can each of these people and so many others find such different outlooks on life. How can some mange to find joy and hope where others only see fear and sadness? These two ladies are seemingly both faithful people, both pray to God and look for the day that they enter the kingdom of heaven and yet both have such drastic outlooks on life. And this is what we find all around us. Yet this conversation with my son gave me an idea. I was trying to get him to say triangle, the flat three sided shape that is used to make a pyramid and yet he saw it only as a pyramid. As he pointed out, the very fact that it was a 3D piece of wood made it a pyramid. Had it been a circle it would have really been a sphere. Had it been a square it would have been a block.
With this in mind, I suggest we put on the "lens" of God. Ordinary moments look pretty flat and the boundaries of those moments defined but when we invite God into them they come alive. The fluidity of not only those moments but our days draws us into the relationship with God that change us. This relationship gives us hope and love. This relationship is where we meet grace and accept salvation. This is a relationship in which we know that the Divine is clearly here to work in our lives. Some of us are able to do this without much thought, we always have our lenses on and our eyes towards Christ; others of us need more reminding. Either way, living a life with the lenses of God on changes us. No longer do we live in the moments of gloom or the fear of the unknown. No longer do we sit and wait for life to happen around us but for those with the lens of God on, life is good.
Today, turn on your lens of God. Allow yourself to be transformed. Allow the world around you to be transformed. Get out of the present moments and let hope be found, joy abound; let yourself be engulfed by love and grace lead you forward. Let yourself live with and through the Divine knowing and trusting that there is more to life then meets the eye!
