Photography Week - God Glasses

I started keeping a journal in 2008, just after returning from Kujenga Viongozi,* the annual black-Catholic youth retreat. One of the first pages of my journal is filled with notes and quotes from the various priests and presenters. One of my favorite ones says “Put on God glasses.”

The idea is that we don't always see things clearly. Sometimes we need to put on God glasses to be able to get the whole picture. As Jethro sings in The Prince of Egypt, “look at your life through Heaven's eyes.” LINK. God glasses help us focus on what's real.

At some point last year it occurred to me that my camera was my God glasses (though maybe God monocle would be more accurate). I look through the lens to really see something. To notice its beauty, its excitement, its sorrow, its joy. The camera isn't for quick glances, it's for taking a “long loving look at the real.”**

When I bring my camera out of the house, it's because I'm expecting to find something work looking at; I'm expecting to find God. And invariably I do. “Seek and you will find.” The camera strap on my shoulder reminds me to seek. It tells me to be watchful, for I don't know the day or the hour when I'll stumble across some beauty, some goodness, some truth worth seeing through my God glasses.

In this way, the camera's first purpose in my life isn't for taking pictures to show other people, it isn't for recording me life. The camera's first purpose is to, day by day, let me see God more clearly.

So when you look at my photos on this blog, you're seeing what I see through my God glasses.

*Swahili for “Building Leadership”

**Fr. Walter Burghardt's famous description of contemplative prayer.