React, Using Refs to scrollIntoView() doen't work on componentDidUpdate()

Ok it's been a while but I got it working in another project without the setTimeOut function so I wanted to answer this question. Since Redux pass the new updates through props, I used the componentWillRecieveProps() method instead of componentDidUpdate() , this allowes you a better control over the updated properties and works as expected with the scrollIntoView() function.

class PhotoContainer extends React.Component {

  componentWillReceiveProps(newProps) {
    if (
      this.props.navigation.sectionSelected !==
        newProps.navigation.sectionSelected &&
      newProps.navigation.sectionSelected !== ""
    ) {
      this.focusDiv(newProps.navigation.sectionSelected);
    }
  }

  focusDiv(section){
    var scrolling = this[section]; //section would be 'theDiv' in this example
    scrolling.scrollIntoView({ block: "start", behavior: "smooth" });//corrected typo
  }

  render() {
    const totalList = [];
    for(let i = 0; i < 300; i += 1) {
        totalList.push(
            <div key={i}>{`hello ${i}`}</div>
        );
    }

    return (
      <div >
          {totalList}
          <div ref={(el) => this.theDiv = el}>
            this is the div I am trying to scroll to
          </div>
       </div>
         )
      };
    }