Pictures of Real Life
On a recent clear night the crescent Moon and Venus were absolutely brilliant, leading a friend on Facebook to say, “It is beautiful but my Nikon said ‘Too dark. Stop trying.’” To which I would add: Just enjoy the beauty that you see and burn it into your memory – the one that is in your soul and not on your computer drive.
There was a time in my life when I looked at the world through a camera lens. It started in college where my degree in journalism required several photography courses. I bought a good all-around camera – remember the Canon AE1? – and I spent much of the next decade looking at the world through a camera lens.
I loved taking pictures, but I began to notice some creeping anxiety in the process. I would go on a trip and become distracted about “getting the shot.” I’d look at a building or a garden or a landscape and think about framing it in the viewfinder rather than just experiencing it and enjoying it. And back in the day when we still used film, I worried not only about getting the shot but about having enough film on hand to get the next shot. And that, of course, had me looking for the familiar yellow Kodak symbol in shop windows.
That all changed when my camera was stolen and I didn’t replace it. I started using my eyes, and I quickly found that vacations and events were more enjoyable, more restful, more memorable. I began capturing moments and experiencing life with my heart and not just my camera.
Photography has changed since then. It has become easier “to capture the moment” with digital technology and then relive it immediately and share it or even edit it or reshoot it on the spot. For me, snapshots are still OK for capturing quick moments with people, but I am all done with trying to capture and freeze the infinite grandeur and beauty of nature for viewing at another time.
But even a snapshot can’t adequately capture a taste, a smell, a sound, a touch. I can look at a picture and recall that I was there, but it is the heart that remembers what being there meant. A case in point: My parents recently gave me a little black-and-white photo of me and my siblings sitting on the sofa with my grandparents. LeAnn asked if I remember that day. I don’t, but I remember what it felt like. I remember the fun of going to see my grandparents, I remember their voices, I remember their love. The photo will fade, but those feelings will last forever.
There is something of this in the Easter story. God wasn’t content to view his creation second hand, like digging through a box of snapshots or scrolling through endless digital files. God wanted to live life for real, as we do. God wanted to experience our joys and sorrows for real, as we do. God wanted to suffer the fear and pain of death for real, as we do. And in the end – or is it just the beginning? – God wanted keep us with him forever. Not just in a picture, but in real life.