"Walking To School, In The Snow, Uphill, Both Ways!" (copied)

A new wind is blowing. It's the wind of a new month, and we find ourselves bracing for whatever might whistle its way towards us on this Monday, March 2, 2015. It really doesn't matter that much what your background may have been because all parents at one time or another give their kids a dose of, "You think you've got it tough, well, let me tell you, back in my day...." Often that involves walking to school, doing chores, or any number of other things. I saw the photo above and it struck me as telling a pretty important story. These are children in Indonesia. They are crossing a dangerous river on a very precarious rope bridge in order to attend school. I don't know about you but that pretty much tops all of my stories. It also reminds us all of how special it is for people in far away places to get the opportunity to participate in something we mostly take for granted. I hate it when my sad stories are upstaged by a single photograph. I'm still thinking about it. I only lived about a little more than a block from school. We hardly ever had any snow. No river crossings. We did have a big ditch and I did get hit a couple of times with some pretty serious mud balls flung at me from the end of a stick. It left a welt. That may have happened during an episode of playing war but if you think you had it tough, I'll tell you what tough is!

That photo of the Indonesian school children was an award winning shot. The one of the shepherd and the sheep also won an international award.  After I saw it, I had to go back and find it because it said something to me. It reminded me of what may be the greatest of word picture object lessons that God chose to define Himself and His relationship to us who are His own. The Great Shepherd and His sheep. This reminds us of our Lord and Savior who personifies the loving Shepherd. David was a shepherd boy who knew what it meant to care for, defend, and protect his sheep. He was inspired to pen the words to what may be the song that has brought more encouragement and comfort than any other:

The concept of a picture being worth a thousand words conveys the thought that an image can speak as much or more than a large amount of descriptive text. This is an ancient concept. A very old Chinese proverb stated: A picture is worth ten thousand words. Some early quotes in our history helps to track how this became a well recognized slogan. ~ "One timely deed is worth ten thousand words" - The Works of Mr. James Thomson, 1802. ~ "One fact well understood by observation, and well guided development, is worth a thousand times more than a thousand words" - The American Journal of Education, 1858. ~ Ivan S. Turgenev's novel Fathers and Sons, 1862: "The drawing shows me at one glance what might be spread over ten pages in a book." ~ From the text of an instructional talk given by the newspaper editor Arthur Brisbane to the Syracuse Advertising Men's Club, in March 1911: "Use a picture. It's worth a thousand words." ~ God created us as visual people, therefore, He chose to use word pictures to help communicate truth to us.

I am so thankful He did it that way because while we may not be able to comprehend it all, we can apprehend by faith His provisions to us. May God help us all to respond to His call. Amen. ....More later.