Looking Behind The Curtain

I was thinking about "The Wizard of OZ" the other day.... the movie.  I have read the book several times but the movie is one of the few where I actually like the movie better.  Anyway, I thinking about the scene where Dorothy and her friends meet the Great and Might OZ.  The booming voice, the authority, and special effects kept them from looking behind the curtain.  When Toto goes and pulls the curtain back the companions are surprised to see that the Great OZ was only a short, small voiced man... a human like them, without special powers.  He was using the tricks of special effects to keep them from seeing what was really behind the curtain.

If you look closely at the picture that is behind this blog, you may notice that it isn't a stock photo robbed off the internet.  It is actually a picture I took back in about 2004 or so.  I chose this picture as the back drop of the blog because it is a particularly nice picture... only problem is that all the words and stuff on the blog page keep it hidden.  It disappoints me not because it is my picture, rather it disappoints me because all my busyness gets in the way of seeing the beauty of God's creation captured in that moment in July of 2004 in British Colombia Canada.  It is a shame that you can't see what I saw.

Is it possible that we do that with God, sometimes?  We have an amazing experience of a personal encounter with the Living God... and we clutter the view with busyness.  The beautiful things God is doing in my life and in your life are like that picture... we need to shut-up sometimes, and just let people see the changes that are happening.  Let the beauty that is your changed life speak.  Instead we sometimes feel we have to defend God, or at least our ideas about God.  The great preacher, Charles Spurgeon, once said that defending the Bible is like defending a lion.  Just turn it loose and get  out of the way... Our experience of God is like that.  We don't have to defend it we just need to share it.  God's love will shine through and others will see the beauty of what He is doing in our lives.
Grace and Joy in Jesus,
Pastor Bill