The Difference Is In The Enlargement

We all know the saying, “beauty is only skin deep”.  The meaning has to do with quality.  Is beauty a facade or does it go deeper?  How is the quality and character?  

When applied to photography, this concept to me is amazing.  Quality in a photograph can be skin deep.  One can take a look at a photograph of a flower taken with a device of lower quality and also one taken with a  device of much higher quality. Side by side, if viewed in a small thumbnail like we see on Instagram, the two may seem quite equal.  Sometimes, the one taken with a lower quality device can actually look clearer and seem to have better quality.  I’m thinking a lot of how photographs can look using an older iPhone.

The difference in quality is seen mostly when a photograph is zoomed out into a much larger circumference than the size of a thumb-nail.  Take the exact same image that seems of much better quality in a thumb-nail and enlarge it to an 8x10” size.  Then take the exact same photo taken with a quality camera and do the same thing.  This is where you begin to see a difference.  The 8x10” enlargement of the one from a low-quality source will degrade.  It loses its clarity and the quality is lost.

The other will hold its quality even when it is stretched or expanded into an 8x10”.  

I found this out recently after years of using an iPhone to capture macro photos of flowers.  They looked good on the tiny thumbnail of my Instagram account.  But I knew that I could never enlarge one of my own photos because the beauty was nice….but only skin deep.  And I am not satisfied with the knowledge that they are that way.  Sure, one can take some glorious-looking photo’s but they don’t do the flower justice.  The flower itself has beauty that is beyond the realm of skin deep.  

The difference between my iPhone macro and my new camera is the depth you see when the photo is enlarged.  And it does make all the difference for quality’s sake.

When we say “beauty is only skin deep, the meaning is this: 

“as deep as the skin: not thorough or lasting in impression : superficial”

And then we have quality:

“•the standard of something as measured against other things of a similar kind; the degree of excellence of something.

•a distinctive attribute or characteristic possessed by someone or something.”

This idea of quality in photography isn’t something we hear very often.  In a world of thumbnail snapshots only enlargement will tell the truth.  

One synonym for enlargement is growth.  In spiritual enlargement or spiritual growth, God has given us His Spirit to produce His Son in us.  He does so by way of trial and sufferings, by way of hardships and the things in this life that may rub us wrong.  In this way, God is using all these things as we go to Him in them, to get us to quality….the inner work that is way more than skin deep.  We often hear from people outside the Sunday morning ritual we call church that the churches are full of plastic people.  They aren’t wrong. This type of religious activity can easily be attained at a skin-deep level and be considered a good or “successful” service.  One can even sit in a pew and hear a sermon and go away stating, “that was a powerful message” and it do little to the inner work God wants to do.  He is after quality.  And if that means exposing hearts when they don’t have the prop of going to a facade meeting on a Sunday morning, He will do that.  Because He is more interested in what is real and of quality than that thumbnail version we give to each other when we leave our homes.  This is why home groups where God’s people come together can be so amazingly messy.  And also why so few “succeed”.  It’s because we are too used to the superficial and we get by with it week after week in the way we do what we call church.  The quality God desires in us will accelerate tremendously if we would be in closer contact in a setting where no one can just walk in and then walk out without being known…..and the exposing of things pretty quickly and pointed out in the real presence of Christ by His Spirit.  

Well, God is doing a good work in our day and many of His precious ones are unsatisfied with the present-day facade of skin-deep churchianity.  They are leaving.  And He is drawing them together in His way.  He said that He will build His church….His bride….His called-out ones.  He is bringing quality back.  The thumbnail version isn’t cutting it anymore. He is enlarging His people and it’s looks way different than what has been. 

Being a nice person (or pacifying everyone around us even when one should lovingly share some things that can be hard to hear) is not equal to a quality person.  Quality can only be shown by way of enlargement.  And enlargement is a stretching process.  God is a master at this stretching - using this life’s hard situations that can naturally occur.