THE ONE Behind the Camera…

Yesterday a dear friend of mine shared with me a conversation he had recently with his wife. They were looking through photos of the first couple years of their youngest child’s life, and his wife noticed that he wasn’t in any of the pictures. “Where were you?” she asked her husband with a touch of consternation. He responded, “I was there the whole time, sweetheart–I was taking the photos.”

This caused me to also think about movie directors: except for a few who have cameos in their own movies (e.g. Alfred Hitchcock and Quentin Tarentino), directors aren’t seen by the audience watching the film. If one were to form an opinion based solely on the evidence of watching the movie from the theater seats, one would likely conclude that there is no director to that particular movie and that movie directors in general do not exist.

But of course movie directors exist–they are behind the camera (implying that they need to be looked for!) and are essential members of the movie-making team!

Maybe the same is true with God.

For many people I talk to/interact with, they have a hard time believing either in God or in anything that they cannot see with their physical eyes.

But maybe we are looking for God in the wrong place (or not looking for Him at all!): maybe we are focusing only on the “movie” (current events) or “photos” (still memories) of our lives, looking for God there when He is and has been “behind the camera” the whole time:

-Directing the action
-Helping us with our lines
-Trying to get our attention
-Saying “CUT!” when we are in danger or “ACTION!” when we are stuck
-Focusing us on the Script
-Teaching us how to act with our co-stars

God can be hard to see, especially with the veil of sin covering our souls/distorting the SIX senses that God originally gave us! But like the Great Scriptwriter that He is, God can be subtle–He wants us to look for Him–that’s part of His plan! He is not hiding from us, but we have a role to play in finding/knowing Him:

Jeremiah 29:10-14 The Message:

“This is God’s Word on the subject: ‘…I’ll show up and take care of you as I promised and bring you back home. I know what I’m doing. I have it all planned out—plans to take care of you, not abandon you, plans to give you the future you hope for.

¹² When you call on me, when you come and pray to me, I’ll listen.

^13-14 When you come looking for me, you’ll find me.

Yes, when you get serious about finding me and want it more than anything else, I’ll make sure you won’t be disappointed.” God’s Decree.

I’ll turn things around for you. I’ll bring you back from all the countries into which I drove you”—God’s Decree—“bring you home to the place from which I sent you off into exile. You can count on it.'”

What a great promise! Let’s look for Him! Let’s set aside our aspirations for fame, money, the perfect body, and popularity and focus our energies on getting to know The One behind the camera of our lives…He has a phenomenal role for us to play, and we won’t want to miss His final curtain call. 🙂

Please click HERE for practical tips on how to get to know Jesus.
Please click HERE for thoughts regarding when God feels far away.