The Truth about Images.

I have been having fun promoting my practice this week. It is not something I am used to doing anymore as in Toronto when I had a space to fill during my office hours I just pulled from my wait list, here I have to start from scratch! One of the things being done is a newspaper advertisement announcing my welcome to the clinic. This requires a picture of me, so Wednesday night, I had both Anya and Bryn help me with a impromptu photo shoot. After this photo session I spent a whole hour examining and touching up the two shots that were the the most suitable to make them newspaper ready. I heard myself say out loud, do I look smart in this one or this one? Do I look warm and caring in this one or this one? I went on for about 7 characteristics, this one or this one, Number one or Number two, flipping back and forth for quite some time. In the end, I just picked a number and hoped for the best.

Ideally a picture represents a bit of truth about a person but I really do not think much more than a bit can be gained from a picture alone. We have all been in situations where we have seen a person's photo before we have met the person, we create expectations of that person. Then when we meet the person we are surprised by how different they are than our expectations. We need to experience that person to gain a better idea of who they are and even meeting them one time at a dinner party is not enough to truly get to know them. It takes many meetings, many opportunities to share and collect information.

Here is my point to the blog, what is your current image of who God is? Is it based on your memories of Sunday school and the felt figures of Jesus stuck on flannel graph? Is it based on your annoying neighbour who goes to church on Sundays but during the week lives a life unlike what you expect a Christian to be like? Is it based on TV preachers? Is your image based only on parts of the Bible and not all of it? I guess the ultimate question is how true is your image of God and how do you know? I can guarantee that we as humans cannot fathom everything God is, we have no idea how to picture all He is, but I can tell you that the more you look into who He his, His qualities, His power, His love that you will find that God wants to be known, He loves you and wants you to live in that truth. He wants to be know for who is He in truth, not who he is from second hand sources.

Wanna know a secret, my photo shoot is based on a false image of who I am. The night I did the photos I had already changed into PJ's when I decided I was having a decent hair day and might attempt the photo shoot. So I changed my top, put on make up and started to smile as the camera flashed. If you were to zoom out on those photos, you would notice that I was still sporting my PJ bottoms, the fabulous Toronto Maple Leafs ones too! My family loved the look so much they laughed at me the whole time! So these images of me are not speaking the whole truth, just the image I wanted you to see. I challenge you to consider how you think of God and then start asking the hard questions. He is right there waiting to let you know His truth and He has nothing to hide.

shine on my friends!!