Autofocus

 

My new mobile phone has an enhanced camera. Along with the chance to find out almost every fact in the world and the universe, which can be helpful sometimes, I can take photos at a moment’s notice. They are in very good quality, and – wonder of wonders – it autocorrects camera shake. So if I have just taken it out and something appeals, I can take aim and take the shot rapidly. It tells me that although I haven’t held it still, it is correcting the picture. Like the pictures of the icy pond and snowy trees which I took excitedly but almost carelessly today. It’s brilliant, it has yet to fail.

If only all our mistakes or hurried errors could just be corrected. Unfortunately we can often get only a blurred, unclear picture of what is going on in the world around us or even in our own lives. We can’t quite make out what is really going on, although we are used to making assumptions and sticking to our own highly-developed point of view. Unfortunately if can mean that our lives become out of focus, and the pictures of our lives now and our idea of the times ahead become unclear so that we lose our sense of purpose.

Jesus brings us the focus we need, for he tells us that this world is God’s kingdom, the arena in which God’s ways are sought and followed. With many competing philosophies and lifestyles surrounding us, we have the focus of the gospel of Jesus which speaks of Divine compassion and Loving sacrifice – and of loving God and our neighbours as ourselves. This is the lens through which we are invited to see our lives, and the clearer pictures of God’s way which we have can be shared with other people that they too may have their own focussed vision of the Kingdom.