Band Stand

I haven't disappeared.  I was in New Orleans last week for a national meeting of United Methodist Foundations.  I'll be back tomorrow with my normal "thoughts."

This is an image of a band stand that was built in the New Orleans City Park.  It was built in the early 1900's (I think). John Philip Sousa played marches from this band stand.

In the Image

I just started a new book. It's called Who is This Man? The Unpredictable Impact of the Inescapable Jesus by John Ortberg.

Image what it was like to live in the time of Herod the Great. Read this quote:
"The king was divine, or semi-divine. The king was understood to be made in the image of the god who created him. Only the king was made in the image of the god....This is the Dignity Gap."

And then this one: "Imagine what it did to the hearts of the dregs of humanity to be told that not just the king but they too were created in the image of the one great God."

What happened? Jesus happened.

"There are gradations of talent, strength, intelligence and beauty. Martin Luther King, Jr. said, 'There are no gradations of the image of God.'"

What does it do to our lives to see all others as made in the image of God? What did it do to society -- this influence that the inescapable Jesus had? Women became human beings. It became wrong to leave unwanted children on the dung heap to die. The downtrodden were finally seen as having worth -- the same worth as the king.

That worth is not gained because of the family into which we are born or by the amount of money we have or by our gender, race, faith, orientation, age or career. We have worth because God has given it to us. Each of us. All of us.

How does that change how we see each other? How should it change how we treat each other?

Maui Moon

 

Maui Moon

Mississippi River

Mississippi River outside of Memphis.

In the Image

Have you noticed, as you read the Old Testament, the propensity for people to try to be like God?

• In the Garden of Eden, the snake tells Adam and Eve that God doesn't want them to eat of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, because then they "will be like God."  They eat the fruit anyway.
• Right after the Flood, humans build the tower of Babel, "with its top in the heavens." 
• In Job, God says to him, "Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth..."  In other words, are you God, or am I God?

I could list other examples, but these struck me today.  I think we often try to be God, or try to take the role of God.

So, one day God sent his son, in the form of a man, to show us the error of our ways (as one purpose, anyway).  I wonder if part of our problem is that our image of God isn't right.  We try to be who we think God is; instead, God says, "This is who I am.  Be like this."

Be like Jesus if you wish to be like God.

New River

Sorry to have been scarce recently.  I've been in California for a national meeting of Foundations.  I never did adjust to the time change, and seemed to all asleep every evening at 8pm or earlier.  I would have written in the evenings, but I slept instead.

Tomorrow is a day of travel -- I hope to be back to the blog very soon.

Yellow Flowers

Peppermint Flower

Duck

Pier

A stormy evening

Dolphins

Peace, Be Still

What I've been talking about lately

This is a Wordle.net image of the blog

Gratitude

All-county band with my younger son as First Trumpet.  Solo in Simple Gifts.

There are things in life for which you cannot help but feel grateful.

Punta Cana Sunise

Punta Cana Flower

Bahama Lighthouse

This lighthouse is on Providence Island in the Bahamas.  I took the picture from our ship last summer.  As you dock at Nassau, you pass by this lighthouse. It is an 1817 lighthouse that is still active.  In fact, as we pulled out on the ship that evening, we were able to watch the light.

(The night picture was terrible, but that's how things go...)

Fall Leaves

Fall might be one of my favorite times of the year.  I love taking pictures of fall leaves, fall scenes.  There are days when the weather is absolutely perfect.  Blue skies, cool breezes, perfect lighting. 

Fall