What Are You Focusing On?

I think I must be going a bit cross-eyed. Am I crazy to look up at the sky and think that God is still pouring forth speech?

It started several years ago, a few days before I was due to fly to Houston to speak at my second CrossWise Living retreat. As my brother relaxed on the front porch of his log cabin in the Hill Country near Austin, he glanced up in the sky and was quick enough with his camera to grab a shot of this amazing cloud pattern. He texted it to me and joked that this was a biblical pillar of cloud leading me to Texas.

During the retreat, after the Saturday morning meeting, I gave the women the assignment of spending an hour alone with God. I joined them out in the broad meadows, sitting in delicious solitude under the big sky in the shade of a live oak, gratefully communing with the God who’d given me the privilege of leading this retreat.

As I headed back to the lodge for lunch, I glanced up at the clouds and, incredibly, saw this:

No one can convince me that this was a coincidence!

I then invited the ladies in attendance to start noticing the sign of the cross in their surroundings and to send me their CrossWise pictures. Each one is a little gift from our Creator, reminding us of his love for us. Here are a few of my favorites:

Two years later, the tradition continues: Yesterday I received this collection from talented San Diego photographer Melanie Monroe, who was inspired by the beauty of Coronado Island, the location for our most recent CrossWise Living retreat.

Focusing on the Cross

Have you noticed that you start to see what you’re looking for? If you’re in the market for a silver Toyota, suddenly the streets are full of them. If you get a beagle, you begin to notice beagles everywhere.

What if you began to focus on the cross? What if you asked God to start giving you little visual reminders of his sacrificial love for you?

Last weekend my friend Amy Gray and I were out on a sailboat shooting some photos as I  talked about tacking and life transitions with Eve’s Crown Magazine editor Rebecca Fox.

Amy took a picture of me sitting cross-legged on the deck of the ship and then later surprised me later with this closeup of the sole of my shoe!

As you begin to notice these tokens of the Lord’s love hidden around your world, I’d enjoy seeing some of the shots you take. Message them to me on my Dr. Gail Nelson Bones Facebook Page, and I will then post them to my website.

Can you see the cross in this beautiful sunrise shot taken by Dana Erickson of the Coronado Bridge? I can. It’s what I’m focusing on.