Stop and Take the Picture

Have you ever wished you would have taken a picture of something, but hadn’t taken the time to stop and click?

Photographers tell us that half the success of a good picture is spotting something worth shooting. And a good bit of the rest is the composition and lighting.  But these are irrelevant if you don’t stop to capture it.

We’ve been road traveling a lot since we’ve retired. Early in our travels, a seasoned fellow RVer told my husband to go at a pace that allows stopping to take pictures.  So that was the deal we made.  I, the hesitant road tripper, would be a happy camper if we didn’t cram too many miles into each day. And we must stop when I yell ‘pull over’ to catch something that demanded photography. He’s gotten fantastic U-turning the RV. We’ve collected spectacular landscapes, sunsets, churches, flowers, and the world’s largest ball of string.

Taking time to click pictures of people is even more important. (please, not strangers…. that’s creepy!) Now we have these awesome little phones glued to our hand. That makes it inexcusable to miss the impromptu moments of our kids and pets and family and friends.

Here are a few practical suggestions to help you stop and preserve more memories:

1)      Become your grandparents, who always say “let me get your picture before you leave” of anyone who came to visit. You never know if that might be your last picture together and it could become a treasured combination of pixels.

2)      Take more pictures of the people closest to you doing every day things.  You don’t have to post it. But take it. Somebody’s going to appreciate having it later.

3)      Be the one who gathers everyone around for the mass selfie shot at a party or family gathering or work event.  Go order an extended selfie stick right now.

The time you spend to stop and take the pictures will yield memories later.  We don’t remember whole days, but we remember moments. And pictures make those moments return again and again, so we won’t forget.

The Old Testament prophet, Isaiah, recorded a time when God saved a visual reminder. Zion was afraid God had forgotten them. But God gave them strong reassurance when He said “I have engraved you on the palms of my hands.” [Is 49:16, ESV]

We may preserve our pictures in books or store backup photos in the cloud, or frame them on our wall to remind us of special times and dear people. But we have a Father in heaven who has gone a step further.  He has tattooed our picture on His palm. I can imagine that He glanced at His palm today and thought of you! He may have remembered when He first formed you. He may have remembered when you first fell in love with Him. He may have remembered when you placed all of your past moments at His feet and entrusted your future moments into His big hands. He stopped and took all those pictures of you. He remembers.

Dear 29 Year Old Daughter

Dear 29 year old daughter,

Today you turn 29, the age when women often say they want to freeze time. The age that represents youth but not too young. Youth with maturity.  Life with enough past to be grounded.  Life with enough future to be hopeful.

Without me even saying so, you know that I don’t buy in to the ‘29 year old freeze’ myth and I know you don’t either.

Aging well is not about how we look with graying hair and wrinkles, but how we look at them. Aging well is embracing each decade for whatever it brings and finding corners of sweet contentment somewhere in it. So look at each era in life as the right time for right now. Every season can’t be the best time, but it can be the right one for that time.

When you were an infant, completely dependent on us for your nourishment and warmth and snuggles, that was the right time of your life.

When you were a first grader, discovering you could run the fastest, that was the right time of your life.

When you were new at your junior high, reaching out and making new friends, that was the right time of your life.

When you were in high school, birthing your passion for social justice, that was the right time of your life.

When you finished your master’s degree with high honors and serious adversity, that was the right time of your life.

When you found your soul mate, maker of best homemade chicken pot pie ever, that was the right time of your life.

When you established your career, combining social and administrative gifts, that was the right time of your life.

When you first heard his little heartbeat, feeling your own race with excitement, that was the right time of your life.

The truth is, intertwined with those good moments were some difficult ones too.

The truth is, you will remember much of the past more positively than it felt at the time.

The truth is, the future can be scary.

The truth is, your thirties are going to be downright exhausting.

The truth is, we can’t simply positive-think ourselves into looking at each season as right.

But you can do that, because you have put your life into His plans.

David said it lovelier than I can in this Psalm.

For you created my inmost being;
you knit me together in my mother’s womb.

I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;

your works are wonderful, I know that full well.

My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place,

when I was woven together in the depths of the earth.

Your eyes saw my unformed body;

all the days ordained for me were written in your book

before one of them came to be.

How precious to me are your thoughts, God! 
How vast is the sum of them!

Were I to count them, they would outnumber the grains of sand –

when I awake, I am still with you.

[Psalm 139:13-18, NIV]

So, my precious daughter, celebrate your 29^th birthday and then let it go into the memory bank. Know that He has each year of your future in His hands. And whatever that is, His work in you is wonderful. I know that full well.