"What a wonderful world" has become a standard both for its simple yet refined music but all the more for its message. Hit this link if you want to see a clip of this well known song http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c5IIXeR5OUI&feature=fvw Yes, the world we live in is wonderful.
Doesn't it make you wonder sometimes how all this beauty around us came to be? How did it start? Where did it come from? Evolution has been wonderful indeed (or so they say) and we now live in a world so distant from the dinosaurs yet which couldn't really exist hadn't those monsters existed in the first place, well before man appeared on this planet. It makes you wonder where it all came from (accident?) or if someone actually thought it all up and had anything to do with creating it all. Someone like The Force (of "Star Wars") or Gandalf (the Wizard of "Lord of the Rings"). Perhaps Frodo, the free spirit of Tolkien's "Rings", may have been involved too. Interesting thought.
These characters from modern literature and filmography, have led us to believe that there is a Greater Good around us constantly battling the not-so-great Bad who wants nothing better than to see us destroy ourselves and our lives. Superman and The Joker all over again? But don't you think that the Good Life deserves more respect than this?
The "blue screen" of our lives
Coming back down to earth again as Superman does, we can sometimes realise that we can make our world seem even more wonderful than it really is simply because that is how we would like to see it. And thanks to the good use of technology we can do just that. Fool ourselves! If you've looked at my profile herewith you'll have noticed that I come from the advertising business. And that is one of the fields where we make the world look like a better place. (You simply wouldn't buy our clients' products if they didn't seem to be good and make our life better, easier...or whatever.)
Admittedly the plastic life we create may seem like a miracle sometimes (though please leave the politicians out of this!!). People sometimes call this hype and, in truth, it sometimes is. Though I would never accept to lie outwardly about a product or a service being advertised. That, I feel, is blatantly dishonest. Nonethess, many times we are able to create "miracles" on paper or celluloid through the ever growing tools that technology literally puts at our fingertips through the computer keyboard. Even in simple everyday advertising situations what look like a straight forward ad may often have been created on the PC to give the illusion of the perfect setting.
Take a group photo of similing people or a happy family (aren't families always happy on ads?) enjoying themselves on some lovely seaside resort, or on some snowy mountain retreat. The perfection of the image may easily have been studio produced. The snow or the sea may have been added later .... electronically! Or a perfectly well lit up street street with people walking by.... when, in fact, the "models" might have been photographed in a studio against a plain background (we call this a blue screen...simply because it is blue! But one who's tint of blue is somehow able to disappear when the background scene is put in later). And as the designer puts the two images together a beautiful holiday photo appears on his computer, ready to sell you on the destination or the product! The two photos below give you a typical example.....
Before
Before
and
So, our wonderful world may, after all, not always be what it really is. As with a photograph's manipulation, many of us try to create the image we want to project in our lives too. We feel we must cover up our "blue screen" with the picture we want others to see - a happy face, a life without problems, the perfect family. But there is Someone who sees through the beautiful pictures we create. I like to call Him the Almighty Good (sorry ladies but in my mind he's male but then, if you like, you could easily refer to him as a Her, I suppose...it says at the beginning of Scripture that God made them man and woman in His image and likeness, no?). And His Word is clear when it says "Where can I go from Your Spirit? Or where can I flee from Your presence? If I ascend into heaven, You are there; if I make my bed in hell, behold, You are there" (Psalm 139: 7-8).
The Almighty Good sees us as we really are. He knows our very thoughts and everything we do and say (vv 1-4 of the same psalm), so there's no need to create a "pretty" picture for Him. May we each know the freedom that comes with entrusting ourselves to our loving Father,saying with the psalmist, "Search me, O God,and know my heart" (v.23). He who knows us best loves us most.
