Bringing Light to the Creator in His Creation

כָּבוֹד  

Kabode (pronounced kavode)

The Scripture writers refer to kabode a lot, specifically to God’s glory. In Hebrew, kabode literally translates to weight, which gets at God’s weighty significance that sometimes, leaves us humans in awe.  God’s kabode is found in his presence and beauty. I overlayed these photos I took outside my house over pictures of my scriptural readings and journaling to show that God’s kabode can be found in his creation. As I looked through these flower shots, I was in awe of the beauty, but also the beauty beneath the beauty—our artist Creator who made it all.  Not everyone see’s Him behind the beauty though. But He’s there.

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As followers of Christ, we work to make the invisible God, visible.

I love how writer John Mark Comer in “Garden City” talks about (continued in my words to add context to the pieces above): we, as humans, can’t make a flower, but we can take a photo of it. We can’t make the sun rise or set, but we can capture the rays reaching out in invitation for us to seek the artist God who created it for us.

This piece is divinely inspired to create something meaningful. I was stuck on what to do for my final portfolio piece in my photography course; I couldn’t see how the meaningful moments spent with the Lord that I so badly wanted to include in my project could be incorporated with the aesthetics and loveliness of the flowers and tress I took in Oregon. I kept thinking “these nature shots are just way too lovely to create a collection with black and white shots of meaningful yet mundane moments. But there is actually immense connection, symbolism, and truth when you allow the beauty to integrate with the mundane…it started with opening my eyes to the mere possibility of it.

His creation is His beauty on display

John Mark Comer, Garden City (Chapter 7)

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The light coming through the nature I captured points to God’s kabode. Each day is an opportunity to lean in and become more aware of the Creator’s presence and beauty found everywhere. The light shining also signifies how we can’t limit God’s glory; we can’t contain it, schedule it, control it, or run from it. All we can do is close our eyes and live blind, or open our eyes to it. (Comer, Chap 7).