snixie photography

A few weekends ago I once again saw my favorite band, Third Day. They came to Columbus, Georgia (where I now live!) on their Make a Difference Tour, along with TobyMac, Michael W. Smith, and Max Lucado. The real star of the night, however, was World Vision, and their child sponsorship program.

Third Day has been partnered with World Vision for years, and I was particularly excited about this tour because of the emphasis on reaching out and being involved in what God is doing around the world

Here’s some of the pictures I took, starting with TobyMac.

Mac came out to sing with TobyMac:

Then Mac and MWS took to the side stage to sing while the crew changed sets:

Now onto Third Day:

Perhaps my favorite concert shot I’ve ever taken:

One last thing:

I knew when I went that I wanted to sponsor a child at the concert. I had a sponsored child from Lesotho during high school, but when I got to college I had to stop due to lack of income. Now that I’m an adult with a real job, I really felt burdened to start again. After Third Day’s set I went back to the World Vision table and started looking at the pictures of the children, fully intending to sponsor another child from Lesotho. The volunteer with World Vision was helping me look for some and handed me a particularly adorable child from that country. He was smiling up at the camera with his chin tilted up proudly, even as a three year old. Looking at his picture you couldn’t help but smile.

But then I looked down at the hundreds of other pictures on the table. I spend so much of my time talking to my students about how it isn’t what they look like that makes them valuable, yet here I was about to choose a child based on the fact that he was young and cute. I wanted to be associated with the cutest child on the table – as if somehow that was a marker of his value.

So as I looked down, a girl’s picture caught my eye. She wasn’t young, nor was she cute. In fact, she isn’t even smiling in her picture. But this 12 year old girl in Bangladesh who might not have much to smile about is just as valuable as that cute little 3 year old in Lesotho. And she needs to hear about Jesus just as much as he.

As I left the concert clutching my child sponsorship packet, I was reminded that God doesn’t look at the outward appearance. He doesn’t base my worth or yours on what we look like or what we can do. He loves, most often, in spite of me and my failures.

So here’s Jim – my reminder of unconditional grace that doesn’t care if I’m the cute kid smiling or not – a reminder of the God who, even in my mess, chooses me.

http://www.worldvision.org/