Recognition

I remember when I first became aware of the scrapbooking craze some 15 years ago.  I loved the look of the artistic enhancing and captioning of photos,  but I was always too intimidated to try it.  Then when we moved away from Mississippi, someone at our last church gave me a scrapbook as a going away gift. She had taken a farewell picture of us as their pastors and placed it in the photo slot on the cover. The empty scrapbook came with a set of accessories, and one day I was brave enough to plunge into what would become my passion for the next several years.

Since then, I have filled a dozen bulging albums with memories in themes of weddings, graduations, anniversaries, grandchildren, vacations and birthdays, to name a few, with a heavy emphasis on babies, especially from the parents of those who send me pictures.  Although I'm currently in a scrapbooking lull with the tomes largely neglected and not viewed for a while, I took one out yesterday and couldn't put them down until I had shed the last tear over the last album.

I think my current passion is reading the Bible through in a year.  It was a little slow at first, but now I find myself waking up and eager to get to the Bible for each day's reading.  I find myself overcome with emotion when I read something like Joseph's overwhelming reaction to seeing his brothers again.  He would have to leave the room to keep them from seeing his tears.  Then, when at last he reveals himself to them, I can almost hear the passion in his voice as he exclaims, "I am Joseph!" to their astounded faces.  Exodus 45:2 says he wept so loudly that that the Egyptians he had sent from the room heard it.

Or I imagine the tender scene when Isaac sees Rebekah, approaching with the caravan of camels when she is brought home by the servant to be his bride.  Rebekah looks up and sees Isaac at about the same moment, and asks, "What man is this that walketh in the field to meet us?"(Genesis 24:63,64.)  What a glad moment of recognition! 

Their marriage produces Jacob and Esau, who become estranged from each other as adults as a result of Jacob's tricking Esau out of his father's best blessing.  The time comes when they will meet again, and Jacob is filled with fear of reprisal from his brother.  Genesis 33:4 says, "And Esau ran to meet him, and embraced him, and fell on his neck and kissed him: and they wept."

As the saga of redemption continues, Moses recognizes God in the burning bush and is told to free the children of Israel from Pharoah's bondage.  Moses is afraid the people won't believe him, and wonders what he is to answer if they ask who sent him. God tells him to say, "I AM has sent me to you." 

Saul met Jesus when he was on the Damascus road enroute to get documents permitting him to persecute the Christians.  Suddenly he was blinded by a bright light, falling to the ground.  A loud voice from heaven prompted him to ask, "Who art thou, Lord?"  "And the Lord said, 'I am Jesus.'"  Saul was trembling and astonished, and submitted to God's will.  Acts 9:1-6.

All through the Bible God gives us snapshots of Himself  in the pages of human history. Over and over in the gospels Jesus reveals Himself.  He is still revealing Himself to us and wants us to recognize Him and accept Him as Lord of our lives. The Bible is the best photo album we have, not to be tucked away and ignored, for it is a living picture of Jesus.