The Path of Unknowing
What the Vanishing Point might be saying
A friend of mine commented on my photography a few months back when she noted how many of my photographs are centered around a vanishing point (defined as the point where parallel lines appear to converge as they recede in the distance) such as you see in this collage above.
These were all moments from Saturday morning. Something was stirring in me unconsciously as I photographed these moments. They weren’t casual photographs either - there was an intentionality to each - something about what I saw in each moment drew me in.
As I’ve had a few days to reflect upon it, I feel like there’s something to the sense that each gives of being able to see the immediate, to see the direction, but also the unknowing of where I’ll ultimately end up. As I have been reading Isaiah in my daily readings, I hear some of that as well - the messages speak to the immediate (many of which are challenging and difficult things to hear) but offer promises of what is to come of restoration and hope but those are not yet realized. But within it all is the call to stay on the path and keep moving forward.
In the congregation I serve, our guiding statement is that “we embrace all as we journey the way of Jesus.” I love the statement because it acknowledges who we are aspiring to be in the here-and-now (embracing all and following Jesus) but it isn’t about what the destination or end point will be. It is about what we are doing now and trusting how God will continue to speak and guide. That might lead us to a place we expect but, more than likely, we’ll end up somewhere on the horizon that we cannot see now. That’s how God has always worked and so why would we expect any different now?
I think Carrie Newcomer sang a song about this… Learning to Sit With Not Knowing
