Tuesday, March 3, 2009

Greediness

I come to the beach at sunset, eager for joy and beauty, greedy to capture it in photos, but the camera's battery is depleted.

The western sky is a thousand shades of pastel colors: blue, mauve, pink, peach, yellow. I want to carry photos home in my pocket, proudly paste them into my blog--but tonight I have taken an involuntary vow of poverty.

Does God rejoice in the changing beauty as much as I do? I wonder. Does God too want to hold onto particularly beautiful scenes, however transient? Or is every thing and every moment equally beautiful to the Creator?

I'm trying to accept my camera-less state when someone walking toward me stops and holds out a camera. "Would you mind taking my picture?"

"No, I'd be happy to," I laugh.

"Someone back there said no," she continued. "I guess she was afraid of me."

"Yeah, it's pretty scary here on this beach," I joked, taking several shots at various angles, silhouetted against the sunset sky and then with the fading light on her face.

She walked on, and so did I.

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