Psalm 25:5

“Guide me in your truth and teach me,

For you are God my Savior,

and my hope is in you all day long.”

God speaks to each of us in a unique way.  He speaks to me with photography, what I call contemplative photography, or “seeing with the eyes of God”.  Thomas Keating says, “Each new awakening to God changes our relationship to ourselves and to everyone else, as well as to Him.”  Photography is generally seen as a tool for recording our lives: family events and travels. On the other hand, a contemplative photographic experience can take place anywhere, even as close as your own backyard.  It doesn’t matter what kind of equipment is used, whether a cell phone camera or an intricate camera.  A photograph is made special when the photographer discovers something special, by paying close attention to what is around her, to what God wants her to see.  For me, this is the joy of photography.  I am able to see the photograph God wants me to see at that moment, and by our joining together, the moment becomes holy.  And in that moment, I am reminded that all moments are holy.  I feel my spirit and my soul light up without any effort.  I feel as if my soul is suspended in God and I am at peace.  I view the world not just with my physical eyes, but with my spiritual eyes, which I call “seeing with the eyes of God.”

As a photographer, when I look at the world with the eyes of God, he shows me the divine at work in the hidden depth of things.  It is so easy to let ourselves be lulled into complacency by the ordinary in our lives, but with God’s grace I see the ordinary turn into the extraordinary through the lens of my camera.  This is the gift God has given to me.

What is the unique way God speaks to you?

(c) 2015 Bonnie Oden

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