Denatured?

2013

Denaturing photographs is easy with the right software. The concoction to the side was part of a photo shoot I did with the flawlessly skinned and beautiful inside and out O-girl. She picked flowers; courgette flowers for the non-veg growers, a delicacy when stuffed with Middle Eastern spices and some kind of starch like couscous or polenta, for the non-foodie types. O-girl came to visit my plot to take away a bundle of the courgette leaves, to me unnecessary triffids that were taking over like Japanese weed to her a delicacy from her home country. When we shared recipes we couldn’t help grimace at the other’s idea of delicacy. Isn’t it weird, we all have palates, mouths, taste-buds yet we all taste things differently and we all like and love different food.

What about denatured people? If to be in our natural state, basking in the glow of our Lord, then when we are not in a relationship with him, we are denatured. Unlike this photograph, we can remove the denaturing effect from our lives. That is easy, we just ask God to come into our lives, to be in relationship with us.

I will never be able to capture the beauty of that moment, in a few months time I could take another photo but it won’t be exactly the same, when we walk with Jesus we won’t ever be exactly the same. We may look the same on the outside but inside, that’s different. The worldview we held will never be held again, the focus of our lives forever changed. The bitterness, resentment, frustration are gone to be replaced by a softened clean heart occupied by God. This is not some sickly rose-tinted worldview like in a romantic comedy. Reality is a lot more real, no longer can we do what we want in a hedonistic way, we live for Jesus, we live in Jesus and he lives in us. And knowing that makes all the difference. No longer denatured by sin, glowing in the light of the Lord