Walk Circumspectly!

It was a comedy moment – something right out of slapstick.  There was I, standing outside a church, camera in hand, and the bride had arrived, along with her parents and the bridal party.  The groom and all their guests were already seated in the church and there was still a few minutes to go before the ceremony, so, taking advantage of the moment, I decided to get some photographs of the bridal party.  Using a well-practiced ‘speed-posing’ technique, I started with the bride alone, then bride and dad, then added in the bride’s mum, then the bridesmaids and the flower girls and the page boy…. As the group in front of the lens grew in numbers, I used another favourite technique.  It’s called, ‘zoom with yer feet!’

So, instead of fiddling with the lens,  and zooming out, I just started to step backwards.  You can see where this is going.  Behind me was a small wall, just knee high, and beyond that wall was the church graveyard.  Totally concentrating on my work, getting the complete attention of the subjects, making sure my exposure was correct, I stepped back, and then again… until in a scene reminiscent of an old Laurel and Hardy film, or a Charlie Chaplin movie, I tumbled backwards, over the wall, and into the graveyard!  To uproarious laughter from the bridal party, I got up and dusted myself off, and tried to hide my embarrassment, while someone advised me that I shouldn’t be so focussed on others that I forget to watch where I’m walking!

The Apostle Paul gives very similar advice in Ephesians 5, where he reminds us to ‘walk circumspectly, not as fools but as wise. Redeeming the time, because the days are evil.’  He’s telling us to watch how we walk through this life, and and later in the same chapter he tells us to ‘walk as children of the light.’  John helps us here too.  He says, ‘walk in the light, as he is in the light.’   It was Jesus who described himself as ‘the Light of the world’.  John 8:12.  ‘I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.’

As we walk throughout this life, there is much to make us stumble, and much of it is caused by fixing our focus upon other people, who are just as weak and sinful as we are ourselves; celebrities, role models, whoever.  The Bible’s advice is to trust Christ, who will lead us through this world, walking with us; who will forgive us when we sin and pick us up when we fall, and who loved us long before we ever loved him.

Well, despite my embarrassment and discomfiture, and a few aches and pains, that bride’s day was a great success.  After all, the whole bridal party went down the isle with a laugh and a smile!