Trustworthy

Trustworthy

If you are faithful in little things, you will be faithful in large ones.

Luke 16:10

An Amish friend once told me, “The Amish don’t believe in their photos being taken, but if someone—like a newspaper photographer—happens to catch them in a shot, they don’t mind. In one older book about the Amish, it is noted that the “photographer” took the pictures with the camera hidden under his arm. While most Amish don’t like to be photographed, some allow it.

Bill Coleman is an internationally acclaimed photographer of the Amish. The photographic legacy he deems his Amish Odyssey is four decades long, a goodly number of years to document the lives and landscapes of the Old Order Amish sect in a hidden valley somewhere in Pennsylvania. But forty years is scantly time to portray a people whose ancestors immigrated to the area in the eighteenth century.

The Amish have a love affair with life and simplicity, with preserving ages of innocence and respect, with teaching responsibility and the joys of tradition. These very private people are reluctant to reveal themselves to outsiders.

Bill, albeit knowing he will always be an outsider has, charmingly, respectfully cajoled his way into the hearts and homes of a number of Amish families willing to allow him to document their lives from birth to death, generation after generation. His determination to keep their location secret, their lives private, equals their determination to maintain their way of life.

Do you have a friend like Bill? Someone you can trust no matter what? Are you a friend like that? Can those in your inner circle trust you without reservation? Do you uphold their trust?

Do you see Jesus as a friend like that? That’s the way He sees you: “I no longer call you slaves, because a master doesn’t confide in his slaves. Now you are my friends, since I have told you everything the Father told me” (John 15:15).

When you turn to Jesus, He knows that you may find it hard to open your heart, but He’s completely trustworthy. Above all else, know that.

Dear heavenly Father, I am amazed that You call me friend and long for me to trust You. I do trust You, Lord. Help me to trust You more!