Tag: facial recognition

Posted in Through the Bible Devotions

Facial recognition

Posted on by William Douthwaite
Photo by cottonbro studio: https://www.pexels.com

You have said, “Seek my face.”
My heart says to you,
    “Your face, Lord, do I seek.” (Psalm 27:8)

As a newborn’s eyes begin to develop, he or she will seek out the face of a mother or father. Their eyes will fix on your eyes. It’s is an amazing moment when our eyes meet for the first time, and we both smile.

I’ve been going to a lot of my grandson’s basketball games lately. I love it when one of the players gets the ball and looks into the stands to see if mom and dad are watching. Of course they are, and they’re shouting, “Shoot the ball!”

Some cell phones come to life with facial recognition. The phone sees your face and grants you access to all your apps. It’s an amazing part of the technology.

I was always taught to look at the person who was speaking to better understand what they were saying. It’s just part of being an active listener.

So it makes sense to seek God’s face. We want to feel connected, we love to know he’s watching us, it feels good to know that he knows us, and we don’t want to miss anything he has to say.

So if you feel your heart telling you to seek his face, do it! Listen, look at what he’s doing all around you, and connect with his promises.

Posted in Life

“I know that face!”

Posted on by William Douthwaite

I got caught by facial recognition. Twice.

I was at the gym and just about to get under the bar for a second set of squats. A young lady who was doing some personal training came up and said,  “I’m sorry, I just have to ask – did you used to help out a summer program at the church just down the road?”

“I used to. I’m retired now.”

She told me her name and said, “That used to be my favorite thing every summer!”

I remembered her. “You went to our preschool, too, didn’t you?”

“Yeah. I loved it there!”

Every once in a while, someone from the past will recognize me. They’ve all grown up so I don’t know them. But when they see my head of gray hair and they remember me!

Fifteen minutes later, as struggled through another exercise, an older gentleman came up to me and asked, “Didn’t you used to meet with a group of men at the restaurant over there?”

“Yes, I did. But I stopped doing that last summer.”

“I thought I recognized you. I used to sit at the table one row over on Thursday mornings, too.”

He kind of looked familiar, but I had never actually met him. I think one of the men in our group had invited him to join us, but he preferred to eat by himself.

He said, “I retired in 1999.” Then he added, “Keep up the good work.”

Facial recognition technology is amazing. But so is the ability of the human mind to see a face and recognize someone from someplace and some moment in life.