Hiding Our Stuff

   The other day, I took a picture of an old eatery in Belen, MS that I was just not satisfied with, and sent it to my photographer mentor. I thought there was a good picture in there somewhere, but could just not get it "right". Here it is again:

   Now here is what he sent back after working on it a little bit:

   What is the difference? He took a bit of the clutter out of the shot, in the form of an old grill beside the chimney, and that made a difference.

   In the Bible reading this morning, Genesis 44, the sin of the sons of Jacob in regards to getting rid of their own brother Joseph, is about to be revealed to the world. They have hidden it from everyone, including their father, but now there will be no place to keep it out of the light anymore. Joseph himself has, with God's wisdom no doubt, maneuvered the situation so that it is out of the other brother's control. There will be no way to keep that particular skeleton in the closet anymore.

   We all have things in our lives that we would rather not be brought out into the light, but, like the grill in the photo, we can take it out to make the whole picture look better, but that act does not take it out of the history of our lives. We can smile and go our way, looking good on the outside, but we know the truth of what we have done. We simply applied a mask to hide the truth.

   In the photo processing tool that I use to make my shots look better, there is a way to take things out of a picture, a simple click, and it is gone, but it is always necessary to have the original shot in the file. There is no way to do away with the original and just keep the copy. The computer program won't let me do it.

   All of us have "stuff" that we would prefer the world out there not to associate with us. I know I do. I can hide it and not confess it to anyone, but the truth, like that original pic, is still out there.

   My true history, not just my smiling exterior one, is out there, and it takes more than a computer program to fix it and make it look better. It takes the forgiveness of God to make it right in His eyes. Acknowledgement of my sins before Him and the desire to go "and sin no more" are keys.

   God knows the original. I can try for a computerized "better copy", but only He can "make all things new".

   Thanks be to Him...