Blurred Clarity

Including a picture of my family seems like a good plan for this first-ever blog post. They’ll be featured in many stories for sure, so it’s fun for you to have a visual. Plus they’re pretty cute.

This particular photo, however, comes with a confession.

Jackpot. We accidentally got a great Christmas card photo in October during a day trip to New York City. An internal happy dance erupted in celebration of my jumpstart on Christmas preparations. Woohoo! I knew I could come up with a catchy greeting for this shot and I started to create the card right away.

But as I looked more closely at the picture, my jubilation dwindled.

If I had known we were going to take the Christmas card photo, I would have worn a darker shirt and thrown on a little lipstick! I thought with a sigh. I scrolled through pictures of just the kids, convincing myself that nobody really cares to see the grown-ups anyway. Following a swirl of insecurity, the peace I was seeking appeared. Through prayer? Nope. Unfortunately that is not where I turned.

Photo editor.

I had only used this feature for cropping, lighting, and adding text, yet I knew it could do more.  Snooping through the various options, a word caught my eye. BLUR.

Blur. That sounded promising.

I proceeded to “blur” out one particularly bumpy area on my body that was unacceptable to me. I clicked save on the tweaked photo and made the card. Done.

Fast forward 5 weeks. I invite you to my kitchen table where my husband and I are prepping the cards for the mail. The names on the address labels are like a patchwork of our life stories. Cherished family from across the miles. Friends old and new. Each holding a piece of our hearts whether we see them frequently or only send a Christmas card. A smile fills my face as I give thanks for our people, for the birth of our blessed Savior, and for my happy, healthy crew on the front of the card.

My blurred out bumpiness faded even further into the background as I realized how foolish I had been to put my focus there. All too often, we zoom in on the trivial and miss the treasure.

If you’re with me on this, I’d like to suggest that we keep a virtual blur function at the ready. Blur out the dust bunnies in the corner and focus on the dear friends coming for dinner. Blur out the fear of what others might think and focus on boldly being who God designed us to be. Blur out the endless laundry pile and focus on the people in the house who generate it. Blur out the grammatical errors of the new blogger and focus on the depth of her message – ha ha☺︎.

It’s day one and I am certain I’m going to cherish our time together!  I would love to hear from you.  Please share if you find some clarity this week by enabling your “blur.”

See you next Wednesday –

The Lord does not look at the things people look at. People look at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.  1 Samuel 16:7