Articles
"He Leads Me Beside Still Waters" Psalm 23:2
I love to photograph in the mornings. Shortly after sunrise as the earth is awakening, the sounds are muted, the colors are vibrant, and the waters are calm. It was like that as I stood on the banks of a favorite lake I frequent in West Virginia. As the mist lifted, I found myself peering into the dark water before me and seeing, not only the leaves floating on the surface, but also the leaves that had settled on the rocks beneath. Still waters occur in the mornings before the winds skate across the surface of the lake. This is a special time of day to me, a time to meditate on the glory and power of God. And what I see as I look all around me is art. The Swiss theologian Francis Schaeffer once said that whenever we dismiss art we dismiss God. It is God who has given us the natural world. It is God who colors the leaves, who fashions the wilderness, who whispers in the wind, and it is God whom we dismiss when we walk through his gallery without a thought to acknowledge his creative skill or a word to express our thankfulness. To refuse a gift is to mock the giver. In the midst of the world we have fashioned, a world which creates its own gods to worship and believes that the accumulation of things is a sign of progress, let God lead you beside still waters. And if your heart is right, he will. He will lead you away from those things which you have clung to, which you have looked to for peace, to places in nature where he can speak to your heart. You will find out who you are - a sinner in need of grace, and you will find who he is - a Savior full of grace. There are still waters to be found in a hectic confused world. Let him lead you there. Then let him teach you there. - John
