“The Pope took a tumble at an event today, and we have video.” This was a report on the news a few weeks ago.

Okay. Do we really need video of that? That sentence is the story, if it’s a story at all.

The newsreader said, “It’s known that he suffers from sciatica.”

Comments online said, “He’s getting on in years.”

Oy.

I’m not sure when it happened, but there really has been a shift over the years. We’ve gone from reading the headlines to needing video for a news story to matter.

It’s too easy to draw conclusions about a person based on that one moment in which they were captured on film (often not their finest moment) instead of getting to know them.

Now, I love fun videos and memes as much as anybody, like the double rainbow guy, or this hairless hamster in a specially-knitted sweater – they can be light-hearted diversions on a hectic day.

For all of this non-stop coverage, it can often seem like we don’t even know each other.

But when I go back to basics to soak in Psalms and pore over Proverbs, I’m reminded that some things are certain and sure. I am known. I am loved. I can be myself, whether on-camera or off.

“You are all around me on every side; you protect me with your power. Your knowledge of me is too deep; it is beyond my understanding.” Psalm 139:5-6 GNT

I suppose that if camera-phones were available during Biblical times, all of those momentous events would’ve been recorded as well. Technology is here to stay; perhaps the key is to keep our lenses focused in the right direction: upward.