Here are the promised photographs of Scout Labradoodle from her Tuesday impromptu photo op. That’s right, we were just strolling through the neighborhood park when Scoutie gets it into her head to sit on a rock and look all photogenic.

The picture makes me think about perspective (again). Maybe I have a simplistic understanding, but it never ceases to amaze me to realize how much things change in response to just a small shift in my point of view.

Standing up, looking directly at Scout, the picture shows a dog on a piece of stone with the flat sidewalk and grass border behind her. When I crouch down, however, all of a sudden here’s a dog on a big rock looking out over the vista below.

If I had continued the shoot, walked down the path a little ways, then sat in the grass and looked up via the telephoto lens (assuming she hadn’t tired of the paparazzi nonsense and decided to settle down for a snooze), then Scout would have looked for all the world like a mountain goat on the edge of a precipice.

Same dog, same location, same pose each time.

ACTS: Which leads me (not too much of a stretch!) into Wednesday evening’s continued discussion from the Book of Acts.

I’d always thought (without really thinking) that what Peter, Paul & Co. were up to was either completely remote from the world we inhabit today, or so out of sync with my comfortable, predictable life that it couldn’t possibly be relevant to me.

But now, looking from a different perspective (and that’s the understanding that I need to start over with much of my approach to faith, and always be willing to learn afresh), I’m picking up the message loud and clear. I’m hearing the Good News again for the very first time, and it’s a message I’m committed to sharing with everyone who will listen. Here it is, as spoken by Paul in Perga:

 And we bring you the good news that what God promised to our ancestors  he has fulfilled for us, their children, by raising Jesus; as also it is written in the second psalm,

‘You are my child;
    today I have begotten you…’

Let it be known to you therefore, my brothers, that through this man forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you; by this Jesus everyone who believes is set free from all those sins from which you could not be freed by the law of Moses. (Acts 13:32-33, 38-39)

“We are God’s Children!” “Today I have begotten you…” “Everyone who believes is set free…” Good stuff.

And then, again with new eyes, I read this remarkable/comical/telling line where Paul responds to unbelievers by quoting the prophet Habakkuk:

“‘Look, you scoffers,
    wonder and perish,
for I am going to do something in your days
    that you would never believe,
    even if someone told you.’”

“Wonder and perish!” Here’s what I’m thinking, especially in light of that, “For just such a time as this,” passage I read yesterday: God is fixing to “do something in our days,” something that we would never believe, even if someone tried to tell us.

“Bring it” – DEREK