Extracting

Extracting There is a technique that is popular with many Photoshop-users, called “extracting.” What it consists of is selecting out a particular portion of a photo, and removing it from the rest of the image. It is often done to eliminate a distracting background, or to move the extracted person or object into a different photo or piece of digital art. Although Photoshop has become very good at doing automatic extractions, it is far from perfect. To get a more perfect extraction requirers magnifying in very close and using a selection tool to go around the entire subject—even individual hairs! I know people who enjoy the process—even find it soothing. Not me! Extracting is way beyond my interest level. There are easier ways to accomplish similar effects, which, for the most part, are good enough for me. I’m glad God is patient enough to painstakingly extract me from the distracting backgrounds in my life. With aging and experience come occasional “ah-ha!” moments. One of those for me was when I realized God means it when He says in His word that He disciplines those He loves. That He is preparing His children for His Kingdom. That when one prays, “Lord do whatever it takes in my life so that I might hear ‘Well done good and faithful servant’ when I see You face to face,” He will answer that prayer. One by one, the Lord has been extracting me from anything I love or admire by worldly standards, or feel proud or smug or vain about. The smugness of youth is cured just by living long enough! Our bodies gradually fail us in so many ways…loss of beauty, strength, stamina, health…. Pride in our mental faculties? Hello forgetfulness. Pride in athletic abilities or talents? Again, time. Smug about the career or job? Things change. Who would have guessed that Sears would go the way of the buggy-whip manufacturer, or that phone booths would disappear? Money? Riches can so easily take wings and fly. Even pride in our adorable little children. They grow up and become their own people and sometimes disappoint or even betray us. I thought I was pretty much stripped of the major pride-producing “pixels,” in my life; and then my hair started falling out. I’ve liked to think that I’ve just been happy over what I thought of as my one good feature. After all, I had nothing to do with my hair genes! How can I be vain or smug over genetic make-up that I had nothing to do with? But when I started grieving over this dramatic change, I saw that I held that thick hair too dearly. God is, gray hair by gray hair, quickly extracting me from that vanity. Anything we are proud of, vain or smug about has to go if we belong to the Lord and sincerely want a close, loving relationship with Him. He has to be so much more important to me than my thick hair that I can even thank Him for this loss. And I have. Theoretically we know that our bodies are not who we are. Living long enough in co-operative, even joyful submission to God, puts theory into practice. God is extracting me from this world so He can move me to the next. Extracting hair by hair is not a problem for Him. He knows exactly how many hairs are on my head, and how many will have to go. I trust Him for even this. I wonder what will be next!