Along with about 25 of his other friends, I was the recipient of an email this morning that was forwarded to me by a friend who lives out of state. We all have at least one of them in our lives: A "serial forwarder." Someone who feels compelled to forward EVERY email that they find remotely interesting to ALL of the people in their address book. It's amazing to me that even some of my most respected, intelligent, centered friends seem to truly
believe that if they don't forward that email they just received to 93
of their friends within 17 minutes, their greatest wish won't come
true. Delete!
Now, I have to admit that in my own mind, I tend to categorize these habitual senders, based on what they've sent in the past, and my resulting degree of amusement. If it comes from so-and-so, it gets immediately deleted, but if it comes from that guy, it's a guaranteed laugh and at least worth saving for later. So for me, this guy - the one who sent the email that I received this morning - falls into the category of "Delete Most / Save Some, Depending on Subject Line."
The subject line of this morning's email was "Fantastic Photos." Hmmm, I thought, during the split second in which my index finger lay poised on the mouse, ready to delete - hmmm... sounds intriguing enough to open. So I opened. There was no email text - just an attachment - a PowerPoint Slide Show entitled "The Simple Life." Well, I'd gotten this far, so I decided to go ahead and open the attachment.
The opening screen read: "Sit back, relax and enjoy. The simple, yet remarkable life... of Mother Nature and the animals she created. Please use the enter button to scroll through at your own pace."
Wait, I thought... "the animals SHE created?!?" Mother Nature!? What is this?! I followed the instructions and used my 'enter' button to scroll through about 60 "Fantastic Photos." And they were. There were photos of magnificent animals, majestic mountains, colorful creatures of land and sea... absolutely breathtakingly beautiful, just as God created them. As I viewed each photo, I was struck by the awesome love of our God who so generously gave us such an amazing world to live in, so much beauty for which to be grateful... to enjoy and appreciate and cherish. Mother Nature?!?!
The 7th photo in the series (shown above - click to open it), summarizes the attitude and belief system of both the creator of the slide show, and the friend who sent me the email. It's an image of a large silver-back gorilla, lying on his stomach and "reading" a book that's propped in his giant ape-hands. The title of the book: The Origin of Man.
Beautiful photos. Sad commentary. Can't my friend see God?
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