Monday, July 11, 2011

Change and Continuity



I stumbled onto this video today.  This girl, Amanda, has taken a photo of herself every day for three years (ages 14-17) and compiled them into a continuous video showing her changes.  This struck me as a metaphor of life and the gospel.  A few observations.
1. It is clear that she is the same person throughout.  She changes.  She grows.  Her hair gets longer and shorter.  The backdrop changes.  The clothes change.  But she is the same.  This is how it goes with us throughout life.  Things change.  We change, but we're still the same - in this case - Amanda.  Also, this is how Jesus (and the church and the gospel) works.  The cultural backdrop changes.  The style changes.  The decorations change.  For the church and our understanding of the gospel, there may be changes and growth.  But the Jesus remains the same.
2. I was strangely encouraged by the fact that she had zits and that they went away and came back and went away and came back.  On the day that she had some of those big zits, they must have felt like horrible problems - remember she's a teenage girl!  But problems that seem monumental today will pass.  New problems will come, sure, but these will go the way of zits in puberty.  They will fade.
OK, that's all for the thought of the day.  If you have other observations, please share.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

reminds me of the line in 'siddhartha' about the river. when you look at the river it's different in every detail at every moment but overall everyday it's the same river.
a person's whole life is pretty much like that.
b