The photos of my garden are often met with undue positive assumptions about the general overall visual pleasure of our little suburban yard.
In truth, it’s just a yard with a whole lot of pretty scenes, some of them carefully staged before photographing.
The picture of the bright yellow flowers of the Maximilian sunflower would lose its appeal if the leftover strands of twine from the now-dead tomato vines were still left carelessly winding its way through the leaves.
A photo of zucchini piled high on a patio table would not look as pleasing if I had left the bucket of weeds in the background, where I had been weeding the path yesterday.
Many photos are taken, studied, and then stems may be gingerly moved to stage another — better — photo. You, gentle reader, get to see the best of my garden.
Last week a friend demonstrated an app on her phone that transforms a persons face into flawless perfection. It was called “Beauty Face” or some such name. It does to a face what my staging and careful framing does to a garden scene.
In all honesty, I think this woman looked beautiful without the app. Visitors to my garden often see past the flaws to say the garden is lovely.
Is beauty really in the eye of the beholder?
Fortunately, in God’s case, it is. He sees us as beautiful! What a comfort to know that our Father loves us and considers us attractive.
But how can he? Like the ugly garden twine and the old pots and garden tools, I can see a lot that is wrong or ugly in my own soul. I know God can see it, but he chooses NOT to.
“I, even I, am the one who wipes out your transgressions for My own sake, And I will not remember your sins” (Isaiah 43:25).
Aren’t you glad that God chooses what he sees? It’s like overlooking the spent blooms on the bachelor’s buttons behind the purple lilies.
“He has made everything beautiful in its time” (Ecclesiastes 3:11a).