The selfie and the big picture..!
At this very moment, there are more selfies being taken than cameramen or professional photographers taking pictures! Youngsters and even older folk have realised they don’t need someone to accompany them to a scenic spot anymore, they go there by themselves, take a selfie, put it up on Facebook and the whole world ‘likes’ the picture. Two months ago, while walking down the streets of New York I found selfie sticks being sold for less than five dollars! In fact I saw an advertisement yesterday of selfie shoes, in which there is a wedge near the toes to place your phone; you lift your leg and take a picture of yourself! But along with progress comes danger. There have been hundreds of cases of selfie accidents: Terrible accidents as the person taking a selfie can’t see what is behind, whether precipice, gorge or valley! Can’t see what’s coming from the side, maybe an approaching train, maybe a killer wave! The selfie taker is so intent on taking his own picture he notices nothing else!
I thought about this today: I realised to the selfie photographer the only object he can see is within the camera frame, or since it is most often a phone, within his phone screen! Anything outside the frame remains unseen to him. His whole concentration is the way he looks, his smile, his or her hair in place, lipstick not smudged, eyes twinkling, and maybe the mountain or sea as a background! All else ceases to be of interest! Even the sound of a train horn, the impending doom of a cliff edge do not register to his senses because they do not appear on his little screen!
His frame is the event!
The next moment the train can crush him, the cliff edge can make him or her plunge down to their death, but for that moment they do not see this or even know it can happen!
Who sees the big picture? Someone who is looking at the selfie taker and also looking at the danger around him. Sometimes they shout, they warn the selfie taker, but quite often when the taker of the picture is alone, he is crushed or falls to his death.
How like prayer this is! We pray for something looking only at the immediate need! We pray for wealth, but God sees how wealth can destroy us at the moment and doesn’t give it to us immediately. We pray for relief from a pain, but the divine knows that the pain is caused by some bigger problem, and doesn’t take away the pain till the bigger probe or medical investigation is done.
We are all selfie takers; just looking into the frame, God answers prayer, seeing the big picture..!