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This Picture Looks So Attractive To Many

A picture can make the unknown look attractive. The way we are attracted to it may have something to do with art. 

This picture looks so attractive to many

When you look at a piece of art, it can speak to your soul … kind of. 

You might have an attraction to it even though the image may be of nothing. It’s the way the colours interact with each other or the contrast of the lines and the way they are drawn across the canvas. 

You can look at a painting and think, “I want that. I want to hang that on a wall in my home.” There is something about the painting that speaks to you. 

To someone else it may not say anything. There may be no attraction at all. 

The painting may be from an artist who threw different colours on a canvas. Some think it is beautiful; some won’t give it a thought. 

I’m wondering if a picture of hardware tools can have the same effect on someone. If it can, well, then I’ve been affected.

Recently, I bought a new Ryobi tool. 

For anyone who doesn’t know, these are tools that Home Depot exclusively sells. They are battery powered and there are many that will run off the same battery.

Not long ago I got an oscillating tool. 

I didn’t even know what a multi-tool was up until a few days before I bought it. But let me tell you, it is great at cutting the bottom off of door trim to allow for new flooring to go under it … among other things.

Along with my tool came a large, folded up sheet of glossy paper with pictures on it – pictures of tools. There are over 175 tools that are all compatible with my Ryobi batteries. 

One hundred and seventy five! – you read that correctly.

That glossy sheet showed the pictures of all 175 products. Beside each product was the part number, but none of the products were named. 

I knew the names of many. … Hey, I have quite a few of them already. But there were some products that I didn’t even know what they were.

The crazy thing was, I kind of wanted them.  

It was like staring right at a Gerhard Richter abstract as it pulled you in to look deeper. 

I looked at some of the tools. I didn’t know their names; I didn’t know what they did … but I wanted them. 

I wouldn’t put them on the wall of my living room, but I wanted them for my collection of tools. 

And just for my wife, Lily’s information, I’m not just collecting tools. I have them to use on projects.

Just seeing the tools on that page stirred something inside me. 

I’m sure someone else would have thrown the sheet of paper out as soon as they opened the package. 

Lily would have liked it if I had thrown the sheet out. … To each his own. 

I’m keeping that picture sheet and, one day, I just may get one of those mystery tools … and I’ll see what it does.

Here’s the thing: In the Bible, the picture we are given of Jesus attracts us to Him. And even though we can’t see Him, we are attracted to Him. Even those who don’t put their faith in Christ are drawn to Him, to the image that is revealed in the scriptures. It is worth investigating Christ for yourself. You will find Him irresistible.

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: What do you find most attractive about Jesus? Leave your comments and questions below.

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How To Capture What Your Eyes See

My new iPhone still doesn’t capture pictures the way I’d hoped it would. I’m not saying the camera in the phone isn’t very good; it takes great pictures, but it can’t capture what my eye sees.

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Most of the time, we are too busy to notice the difference. Something grabs our attention so we take a quick picture, or we’re somewhere special (or not) and we take a selfie to memorialize the moment.

It’s all good, standing on a beach looking out at a sunset that spans the world from edge to edge … to try to capture that on a cell phone camera is impossible.

The scene is before you in all its glory. Your eyes span such a wide spectacle, it takes time to let the details of the colours, the images, seep into your mind to be processed by your senses.

And though your mind is a great hard drive that records and recalls beautiful and amazing images, there is an urge to stop and frame it on a camera so you can do more than just remember it in your mind. You want see it again and again even when you are not there.

That’s when the camera let’s me down. I want to have a photo of what I’m looking at – all that I’m looking at – but the camera can only give me a section of it.

Lily and I hiked in about two kilometres to the Grotto up on the Bruce Peninsula. The path takes you through a wooded area that is filled with beauty in its own right.

There were several times when we were tempted to stop and take some pictures along the way. But when we got to the end of the trail and walked out of the woods to the edge of a cliff, well I just want to show you a picture of what we saw.

The problem is I can’t because I couldn’t take a picture that did justice to what I was looking at. I kept taking pictures, in hopes that the next one would be the one that would capture it all.

Sadly, when I look at all those pictures they just look the same and they don’t reproduce the full jaw-dropping beauty of the vast panorama that was below me and before me.

We even tried to use the panorama feature on the camera in hopes that it would do it, but it only distorts and changes the persecutive into something far less spectacular than the real thing.

In the end, I’m left with a less than perfect picture and my own memory to build a model of the real image I took in that day.

Here’s the thing: We have this same problem with Christ. We only see a poor picture of what He is like; we don’t get to see Him in all His glory. I read in Colossians 1:17-18 that Christ is before all things and holds everything together, that He has supremacy over everything. It dawned on me that my image, my understanding of Him, is so limited that it is only a fraction of what He is really like. We only have something like a photo to go on to comprehend Christ’s glory, His majesty, His magnificence. We have to wait for the jaw-dropping moment when we actually see Him. But then we will never need a picture again.

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: What amazing scene do you will wish you could capture in its fullness? Leave your comment below.