Friday, November 21, 2008

EYE CANDY

Even though I am not a little girl anymore just the mention of the word candy sets my digestive juices flowing. Throughout my life my love for sweets has been so well-known that my mother often stated she should have named me Candy. I have tried the explanation that having been born in September of 1939 meant I grew up with sugar being rationed during WW2 and I think perhaps I didn’t get my fair share! But that’s all about the stuff we take a piece or two and keep to ourselves. Today I want to talk about the kind of candy we don’t keep to ourselves, the kind that is referred to as eye-candy.
Through the use of the Internet I am often delighted with the artistic works that come into our home. In recent weeks I have been the recipient of a sidewalk chalk artist whose scenes are such that the viewer feels a part of the work, a PowerPoint presentation with scenic wonders such as not only the tip of the iceberg but the iceberg itself under the water that causes me to wonder about the photography equipment that captured the scene, interactive greeting cards that entertain, astound, and amuse with the creativity contained within, messages that uplift, inform, and share information…some personal, others generic, and through it all a collection of fantastic free fonts that catch my eye almost as often as do the fabulous photos, what is referred to as eye-candy.
One thing I have come to understand about fonts though is that my computer and your computer have to be compatible or we cannot share our fonts. That means I could send this message to you in a gorgeous handwritten font (as I’d enjoy being able to do) but unless you have that same font as part of your own collection you would not see the beauty I tried to send to you. Somehow in cyberspace everything will change and all you will see is one of the plain fonts already installed on your computer. The good thing is the message will still be there, just not the beauty I had intended, no eye-candy.
It is obvious that God intends for us to enjoy beautiful things; after all He has created things of such awesome beauty they often take our breath away and our automatic response is praise to Him for His creation! But how much of our life have we allowed to become fluff, kind of like cotton candy…pretty and pink, but when we bite into it, it mashes down and melts away into nothing in a hurry while leaving a sweet taste to linger momentarily then quickly gone? And how much of our life do we allow to be as the fantastic fonts clouding our vision with beauty we see and want to share? While we take time to add it to our lives we forget it has not necessarily yet been added to the lives of others. We see the lovely script we intend to send but what they receive may a plain missive on the other end. Are we too busy enjoying our own eye-candy?
This started me thinking about life. How much of my life is like that pretty font? My plan is to send a beautiful message about God but often I am sure it ends up being a plain font on the receiving end. What can I do? It was a friend who taught me where to find the free fonts I have added to my computer; perhaps there is a lesson in life right there. I can take my Bible and help a friend find true answers about God and life starting right in that very place. Sounds pretty simple, doesn’t it? In other words, the more time we spend adding God’s fonts to both your computer and mine, the more beauty we’ll be able to share as we send messages back and forth.
Is it time to stop using excuses as I did about sugar being rationed so I didn’t get my fair share and start looking beyond ourselves and into the lives of others? Maybe there is someone we each know who needs one of God’s gorgeous fonts added to his or her life today and we can be the person who tells him or her where to find that free gift…the eye-candy that can come only from God and that will last forever.
“…the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
Romans 6:23b (NASB)

© Marilyn Sue (Libby) Moore 11-21-08