Once upon a time, I was content with grabbing my camera and snapping a photo of the birds that came to our feeder. Then, because we live in a fallen world, the Grackles and Starlings showed up and chased all the photogenic birds away. Fine, I thought, we will leave up the nectar feeders and watch the Orioles and Hummingbirds and be content with that. However, the ants showed up in such great numbers, they irritated the Orioles so much that they found less ant plagued feeders in the neighborhood and rarely come now. And I brooded…
I recalled living in a Southern land and having mastery over the skies.
I also recalled getting bit by tiny voracious bugs known as chiggers, as I stood in the grass, piloting my flying machine. I amended my memories of that time, and have relabeled them as bittersweet rather than halcion like.
Not everything is what it once was. While I could stride the land and do many wonderful things back
then, I was not at peace, even with all I could do. Little did I know that the good Lord had plans for me, and through the mystery of undeserved grace, (Romans 5:15-17) allowed me to finish remodeling our house and have it be sold the first day on the market, for cash and more than we were asking, and just like that, we ended up back in Minnesota, where we had started, some 19 years ago. Looking back and knowing what I know now, it can only be providence as the way home was smoothed before us.
And then the Lord grabbed me by the scruff of the neck and made it very clear, I was now His. As I said, the mystery of undeserved grace. The last 5 years here have been one of reduction and addition. He took from me the skills of my body, I found out I had ALS about 6 months after we arrived home. He left me the knowledge I had acquired and kept my mind sharp and questing. He added to me a living heart and one that loved His word. I was allowed to learn about charismatic ministries and found them to be a false gospel and a false hope. Our only hope is Christ. (John 4:13-14) He led me to teach bible study and to disciple believers hungry for the word. As of last month, He allowed me to preach in our church when our pastor was on vacation. All of it a mystery to me as to why He pulled me from Hell’s grasp and blessed me with life.
Back to the brooding. I was not displeased with life and how it had turned out. The peace (Romans 5:1) granted to me, completely undeserved, but available to all believers, was a blessing beyond all understanding. Even though I have very little feeling in my feet or hands, and am pretty much housebound, I do not feel disabled. People are taken aback at this, expecting a tale of woe. I am at peace and serving the Lord, what’s to woe about?
I had a thought that I could fly a bit as quite a few people have mentioned to me that they would like to fly a drone too, so maybe this could stir up a conversation that includes the Lord. Since I don’t get out much, I have been amazed as people have been directed to me who need to hear about Jesus or maybe their faith needs a bit of stirring up. I don’t know how it works, but God’s got the details all worked out.
My fingers are a fair bit less responsive than the last time I was flying a drone, but somebody built an app (Litchi) to automate most of what you have to do with flying a drone and taking pictures. And since I have Photoshop, I can do a series of photos and let Photoshop stitch them together. That’s what we have here, from my first flight. Since Photoshop uses an algorithm that dictates how it should stitch photos together, it could care less if you have an odd perspective or shaky fingers or any of that stuff. Thankfully, it also lets you warp images just fine, hence the image you see here is a wee bit bent in areas. Ignore reality and run with it.
You should be able to enlarge the image to see all the details in their warped glory, at least I can on my Mac, I just spread my fingers apart on the touchpad. Your mileage may vary on whatever platform you use.
“There is nothing wrong with your Computer. Do not attempt to adjust the picture. We are now controlling the transmission. We control the horizontal and the vertical.”
