This morning, as I sit here, I keep seeing all the ways the Lord has used photography as a “tool” in my life. I keep seeing the pattern of all the different ways it has shaped me. I can see God’s hand –I can see His fingerprints all over it.
When He wanted to help give me a way to heal from a broken heart,
to take my mind off of myself and my situations,
when I was buried deep,
when He wanted to get me out of the house,
when He wanted to help me in dealing with social anxiety, with facing fears,
when He wanted to help me in getting to know Jason, and when He wanted to use photography to help us grow in our marriage, in our business,
when He wanted to use photography as a way to connect us with people, to change our career paths,
when He used it to help me to find my place within a community of believers…
…When the Lord knew I didn’t have it in me yet to be able to communicate with words, He first gave me photography as a tool to capture the things I saw, the things I took note of, and then He started to show me how to understand what I was capturing, why I wanted to capture it, and then learning about what I wanted to say through what I was capturing.
I love how He knows my heart so well. How He always knows exactly where I am. How He’s so in tune and sensitive to knowing exactly the way things should happen to shape me.
As I’ve grown closer with Him, He’s started using photography as a way to communicate with me, to show me things, for me to learn to be led by Him, “What would you like me to see here, Lord? What would you like me to capture? Lead me to it, let me see it!”
The Lord gave me photography and used it in helping me to see, helping me to communicate, helping me to see the significance of symbols,
and as a way to teach me how to begin using my voice.
And now, somehow over the last year He’s started using writing and journaling as a new tool in my life. Somehow I now have words within me, suddenly they’re there and they form and they come out when I get my pen to write them down. Suddenly when I talk with Him, I have all these words within me that want to come out and be put down on the page. Maybe these words don’t always easily come when I’m trying to speak them out loud, but they’re there, and the Lord has been teaching me how to get them out.
It’s interesting how the Lord uses different tools to shape us, isn’t it? How He knows us so well. ?
But as I look back at my journey so far, I see how the Lord has nudged me along, I can see the evidence of His ways and His beautiful work. I can see what He has been doing in my life, and I can see how loving and sensitive He has been with me. How kind He has been in that shaping process — and how persistent He has been to keep nudging me forward along the path.
I love how personal God is. How He’s a Father who knows what His children really need.
And how He’s so patient with us as we make mistake, after mistake, after mistake.
He’s getting us somewhere, isn’t He?
–Heather ?