Heron at Sunset

Solitude is not about being lonely. Not always. Sometimes it is simply the state of being alone. Alone, like this heron at sunset. Alone, waiting. Alone, anticipating. Alone, secure in the knowledge that you are not ever really alone with God. Jesus Christ is Immanuel - "God with us." How then could anyone ever really be alone?

No Afterthought

Ghost Ranch, NM. Went here last July for a conference on photography and spirituality (other than LSU football, my family, and my dog, these are two of my favorite topics). Anyway, the idea in connecting spirituality and photography was to help us learn to visualize the unseen (and show it). Sounds like a paradox? Try it yourself. Plenty of fun and challenge.

So here's a shot I took while there. A bible sitting alone on one chair of a row of empty seats in the outdoor chapel. Seemed kind of forlorn to me at first.

But then as I have considered it more carefully, it is not forlorn at all. It is the written Word, waiting. Waiting on God. Waiting on someone to discover it. Waiting on someone to remember it. Waiting to provide insight and wisdom to guide someone needing insight and wisdom for the living of their life. Not just randomly waiting or alone, but ready at all times for any and all such purposes, and more.

A metaphor, perhaps, for the individual whose faith is placed in the One whose Spirit inspires each and every word in that waiting bible, either at the point of its being written, or that point in which it is read or spoken aloud. Forlorn and forsaken? Or waiting and ready to receive?

The question is: am I ready to receive? Are you? There is plenty of wisdom and guidance there, inside that one book. Maybe we should consider. Maybe take a seat beside it, and receive.