After some much needed rain I walked into the parking lot where I work to take out some trash and smoke a cigarette. I saw the price sign reflecting in the puddles scattered across the asphalt. Since I hadn’t taken a photo for the day yet and my day had pretty much solely consisted of morning meditation and work, I felt the image an appropriate photo to sum up my day.
But as I manipulated my exposure to capture the image I realized I could not do it the way that I wanted to. I could not set my exposure so that both the sign and the reflection were both right. I set my aperture and shutter speed to best show the reflection since that is what caught my attention in the first place. But the resulting image showed the sign a little too bright to be well defined, for the color to be accurate, for that part of the picture to be clear.
It struck me that God is like that. I can’t see Him until I see His reflection in something else, whether that be something in nature or another person or a work of art or something else. It is in the reflections of life that my limited capabilities to see can observe God. When I try to imagine or see Him directly I can catch a glimpse perhaps, but the understanding is always there that the light is too bright for me to see clearly. I know my perception of the colors and edges and wonder of God is off. My eyes can’t see.
Just as no camera can see the full range of the human eye, my human eyes can not see the full range of the spiritual either. But that is not an excuse to not see God. His image is reflected all around me every day. I just have to be willing to look for it.
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