Memories

Caught on camera. Laughing faces; striking sunsets; happy dogs; newborn babies; weddings; journeys; loved ones. 

Hours spent trawling through digital images and off to the shop to print out 400 – a small percentage of what I have digitally. I’ve been frightened into action by a dire prediction that millions of images would be lost forever once technology moves on and there are no longer the same means of capturing, storing, retrieving the files. Now I’ve purchased the photo albums and will spend a few more hours when they arrive, labelling and placing the pictures in their sleeves to be enjoyed later at our leisure.

The great thing about photo albums is just that. You don’t have to look at a screen to enjoy the memories captured in the pictures.

I have a bookcase of such memories. My mother has a bookcase of such memories. Priceless. Wonderful, though I do wonder what on earth we are to do with all these pictures when we move on outta here. Well, it won’t be our problem. One more decision for our kids to make...

It is so nice to have images of much loved faces. The Bible, of course, has no such images. It rarely even describes the physical characteristics of anyone so we have little more than guesses to know what Jesus looked like, or Paul, or David, or Moses. An odd sentence here or there might provide a clue but that’s it.

I like that. It universalises the people in the Bible and helps everyone to identify with them where they might not if appearances differed radically from one’s own looks. 

It’s amazing how many different shades of skin, of hair, of eyes...how many shapes of noses and lips and limbs...what variations in height and girth...there are, and yet we are all God’s children. We all are made in his image. His DNA runs through each one of us. 

Why, why, then, don’t we get along better? There shouldn’t be such discord, mistrust and downright hatred in the family of God. We have so many challenges in stewarding this wonderful planet, and it would make so much sense if we pooled our resources and figured out the best way to keep the Amazon rainforest, to save the tigers and elephants, to clean the air and purify the seas.  

Made in the image of God. My prayer is that we all begin to resemble him more and more each day, through the help of the Holy Spirit.