Finding a Jewel in the Oridnary

   I walked along the beach for a time yesterday, just with my camera, looking for things to photograph. Just practicing looking, looking at the ordinary, but thinking what that scene or object would look like in a shot.

   My thoughts actually turned to that idea yesterday morning when I was reading the Psalms and meditating on the words. As I thought about service, unselfish service, one of my prayers was for God to open my eyes to those people and opportunities around me, that I might have His eyes to see what and who came onto my path, and, that by seeing, I might see any call He gave me to serve.

   Just as in life, He places those people and situations right in plain view, but if I do not open my eyes, I won't even notice that they are there. How can I serve in the right way unless I truly see.

   These ideas were running around in my head as I walked on the beach in the afternoon sun. Now full sun is sometimes hard to shoot in, but on this occasion the light brought out a unique possibility. As the surf rolls onto the shore, it brings with it a foam like substance which is left as the tide recedes. Thinking this foam might make an interesting shot, I bent down to get a close up.

   The sunlight, shining onto and into the bubbles raised in the frothy residue, seemed to show jewels of different colors hiding in the foam, sparking highlights embedded in a common part of nature, only seen from a close inspection.

   How many times have there been opportunities for me to serve God and others that I have overlooked because of the common ordinary circumstances of life, times that needed a close up view, but I just passed on by without realizing the jewels that lay in them?

   God, please help me to look more closely at people and situations that You place where I am walking. Train my eyes to see, truly see.