"Amazing grace how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me." This song is very old, but it's message is timeless. This song is not talking about the physical as much as the spiritual. It talks about being saved by God and His grace, and how this saving has allowed the song writer to live and see through his heart. This new sight allows him to see God in everything, and by seeing God, the true light, he is never going in the wrong direction. "Amazing Grace" says a lot, and it speaks directly to us as a class as we learn to take a step back a put on our spiritual glasses as I've always called it. In particular we are learning what a sacrament is, beyond those given to us through scripture. As a class we are using each other's stories and the stories of published peoples to aide us in our quest. We are learning what it truly means to see, looking beyond the physical and into the spiritual, connecting us to God. .
One of the first people we were introduced to was Dewitt Jones, a photographer for National Geographic. He helped us to understand the power of perspective in a very tangible manner, by using photography as an analogy for life. This enabled him to give us great instructions for seeing. One thing he said that struck with me was, "We have the ability to look at the ordinary and see the extraordinary." In my opinion, the real message behind this statement, instructs us to take a more active role in seeing. It means no longer can we look in the direction of something and say we saw it, we have to dig deeper than that. We have to look beyond the general picture, and really notice the intricacies, all the parts that make up the whole. Jones also says, "Reframe difficulties or dullness into opportunities." This is great because so often we miss life's most beautiful art because we can't see past the frame it is in. For example, when we"re so busy complaining about the storm that we can't see it as a showcase of nature's strength, and a tool used to share with us one of nature's beauties, a rainbow.
