A shower of golden leaves rained down from the bountiful trees lining the path ahead, beckoning me to step into the bucolic autumnal landscape.
What could be more perfect on a lovely autumn afternoon? It was a beautiful moment, to be sure.
What you don’t see is my husband in the woods, off to the right, shaking a Maple tree, so the leaves fall to the ground in a glorious cascade, just so I could capture the perfect moment.
A manufactured moment.
To be fair, the leaves had been falling in a frenzy just moments before. The display was so beautiful that we paused our walk in the woods so I could take a picture of the magical moment. But as soon as we stopped, so did the leaves!
Good grief!
I grabbed my phone, anyway. I waited a few seconds and leaves began to fall once again.
Two sad little leaves. Good grief! This would never do.
I wanted to see a glorious downpour of lovely leaves falling from the treetops. I waited. And waited. To no avail.
Only those two sad little leaves fell to the ground.
So, my wonderful husband offered to shake a nearby tree. Isn’t he the sweetest? What resulted was pure autumnal poetry. A gloriously beautiful shower of golden leaves.
It was the perfect moment. Manufactured. Planned. Still beautiful, but not authentic.
This, my friends, is the trap we fall into. Feeling the need to manufacture the ideal moment in an attempt to prove our lives are perfect.
There’s a danger in believing that what we see in others is better than what we have ourselves.
Do not buy into this thinking. It is a false picture of what is true.
The reality is you cannot see what isn’t in the frame. But that doesn’t mean it does not exist.
Truth is, more often than not, off camera, behind the scenes, well-hidden and out of sight, you’ll find someone shaking a tree.
You just can’t see it.
“Then Jesus told him, “Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.” John 20:29