Fig Leaves Are So Last Season

Exposure was the main character of my day.  Nobody likes that guy, seriously!  Well, wait.  I started thinking about various personalities of Exposure and, boom, before you know it, I can almost imagine him becoming a dear friend.

It all started with me relaying, to one of my nosy pastors, some of the details about the insecurities and pain I left out of yesterday's blog.  (Well really he's not nosy, I did give him permission, once, to dig and he's not the kind of guy to turn down an invitation.  Persistent fellow, he his.  I'll tell you more about that some other day, maybe.)  He was annoyingly accurate and seemed to be teaming up with a few of my friends, a sibling or two and a parent, in his assessment of me.  Thankfully, he didn't label me with his assessment without a follow-up action.  I'll get to that in a minute.

So anyway, the craziest place I could think of in all of scripture for the guy to take me would be the Garden of Eden in Genesis 3.  He took me there anyway.  We read the story. Then he re-read it, substituting my name for Adam's and using the details I had just given him about my situation.  It actually made sense to me...

Adam was exposed.  He was afraid and didn't trust God with his exposure.  So, he covered himself his way, with a few fig leaves, then hid.  Huh.  That's a familiar action and reaction.  As the story goes, God lovingly leads Adam to a confession, despite his resistance, then makes him better (fur and leather) clothes.  These clothes required some pain and death, but Adam's exposure was covered, without earning it or deserving it, perfectly, comfortably and completely.

Exposure brought about real love.

Before I left today, I asked my sweet pastor to tell me how I can fix this natural-as-breathing reflex I have to sew myself a few fig leaf outfits.  I don't even know when I'm doing it for crying out loud.  His response, my big follow-up action? Stop doing.  Uhhhhh, I'm a do-er.  How does a do-er not do?  Apparently, by taking their hands off the situation, whatever that means.  Soooooo, he tells me, we're going to be praying for illumination this week on those types of situations.  This means my uncomfortable, exposed injuries will remain open to the air and light and potentially be a whole subject in the classroom of life this week.  Umm, I'll let you know how that goes.

Meanwhile, at lunch, I had more food for thought.  I'm a visual learner and find myself using illustrations to tell a story.  As I was discussing, with my fake big sister, the events of the weekend and the morning's conversation with my pastor, I summed it up for her kind of like this:

I feel like somewhere along the way I had a broken bone.  Maybe not an arm, but something deeper and more vital like a spine.  I spent years putting gauze and ace bandages on it while treating it with ibuprofen.  Eventually the pain subsided and the bone healed.  Never mind that it's all jacked up now.  I'm crooked and crippled, but the pain is lessened- unless I try to stand up straight, or move forward in any way.  Recently, it occurred to me that I'd like to stand straight and walk correctly again.  The physician offered to cut me, to heal me- to break me, to bind me.  He'll have to cut through my flesh to the bone, re-break it, set it correctly, then suture and bandage me with His plates, screws, staples and gauze.  His medicines will be prescription strength and His tools sharply precise.  Somehow, I keep arguing with the surgeon about how to do the procedure.  In His grace, He is waiting for me to say I'm ready.  In His mercy, He'll cause me to heal and function the way I was intended to, before the injury.

Exposure is merciful.

Finally, it's no secret I love photography.  I admire "real" photographers and am not afraid to admit that the more I learn about it, the less I really know.  I spent the afternoon alone, playing with some of the pictures I've taken, trying to salvage some of the ones that had low exposure by using certain filters during the edits.  Hmmmm, there's that word again.  Exposure. In photography, it refers to the amount of light allowed to fall on an object or area in a shot and is usually controlled by a shutter.  Without Exposure, we would have no photographic art. 

Exposure is illuminating.

Okie doke, I'm getting it.  This acquaintance, Exposure, is begging to be my friend.  I suppose I'll look for the illumination this week that the good pastor is praying for me.  Like Adam, I might just find real Love. Besides, fig leaves are so last season.

(Google Image)