Carey and I love gardening, especially perennial gardening. The other day I was on a bus from the ferry in Seattle to my church, and I noticed a particularly beautiful garden across the street from my bus stop. Clumps of lavender flourished in beds whose walls were built of adobe. I grabbed my iPhone, excited to take a picture to send Carey. Took the shot. Stared at the screen. Huh? All I saw was a grid of circles and some blurs of color in the background. Turns out there are graphics covering the sides of Seattle buses, graphics printed on a plastic film perforated with a grid of circles. Inside the bus you don’t really notice them. But I was holding my camera close to the window, and all my camera knew to focus on was the graphic, that graphic made of a grid of circles. And no, I didn’t send the picture to Carey. I could’ve sent it to her, telling her I wanted her to enjoy something beautiful I’d just seen. It’s easy to imagine her saying, “I just can’t see it.”
Scripture paints some beautiful pictures of life in Christ. Life filled with the fruit of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Minds being renewed. Peace that passes understanding. But some days there’s stuff obscuring that picture for me. Like my camera, sometimes all I can focus on is that stuff. God’s promises are still true though even when my circumstances can be frustrating or challenging. Those times when I wish I could have a do-over of today or last week or take back that thing I spoke in frustration or anger. Maybe these are the times when Songs of Deliverance (Psalm 32:7) can come from the Lord. Please, God. For me, a song that can shift my focus from the stuff to His Garden is “It Is Well With My Soul”. The song says something so powerful to me. And to you. Are your sorrows growing like waves in a stormy sea? Is it unimaginable that God’s forgiveness could fully cover something that still holds you captive? It is a mystery how God lifts the veil that separates us from Him, but He does it again and again. He’s done it for me more often than I can count. That garden on my bus route in Seattle is still beautiful. My picture just didn’t show it. It was focused on the wrong stuff. Let Him shift Your focus. His Garden’s still there.
Here’s my lyric video of my piano performance of “It Is Well With My Soul”. Watch it now.
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