While I was at a peewee soccer game several weeks ago, cheering on his big sister, I witnessed his little mind working and thinking and thinking some more. (The guy on the left is my brother, not nephew...by the way.)
It was a funny enough scene to begin with, peewee soccer is really just a bunch of 4 year-olds running in a swarm somewhere near a moving ball, possibly heading the wrong direction or scoring for the other team ... it is pure entertainment. "Go the other way!" is an often heard refrain, followed by a bunch of men shaking or hanging their heads and a bunch of women talking about how cute that was ...
I was on the sideline with my sister, her sister-in law, and the little man, T. He wanted to use the camera so, at 2 years, my sister handed it to him and with little issue he began snapping away. Off and on for the next several minutes he shot with it, consistently checking the preview screen to see what he produced. 'Can I take your picture?" His mom asked. And he poses with his "cheeeeeez" and grin, of course the next thing said, "can I see?" and the camera is flipped around and T. gets to see his adorable face on the preview screen. The screen would flash on and off and they would take the next picture and the process unfolded for quite some time.
Until, out comes the video camera. My curious nephew was onto the next adventure in a split second, with his other aunt. But something was not right. This "camera" was broken, or some it seemed. He'd stand in front of it and smile and then ask his aunt to turn it around and "let me see"... but the picture was moving and the preview didn't have him in it! He was sure that it wasn't working. After checking and rechecking and saying "cheeeez" over and over, it just didn't work.
I really love this as a metaphor for life and God's work in our days. I heard a prayer not too long ago that amounted to: Lord, please let me be a part of what you are already doing in this area (wherever you are). Because God is already at work in the people around you, those situations, etc.--if they know it or not.
Where this is a good fit is that sometimes we don't really know or see the full picture--where the preview on the camera made perfect sense to T. the preview on the video camera didn't work. If we trust and obey the direction of the Holy Spirit it may someday make sense, if we try to make the video camera do only what the camera can do ... we miss out on something different and special. If you catch my drift.
