Photographic Future

If you're a scrapbook freak, or are married to/dating a scrapbook freak, let me hear you say, "YEAH!" My wife is a bona fide photo preserving addict ("and I know who her dealers are," he says with a warning tone). I'm above outright naming those who currently contribute - or contributed in the past - to this "illness," but I'm not too good to slap down some initials: D.L., A.K., D.R., S.S., and a few others that I won't drag into this from those Friday Mornings - you know who you are...

Occasionally the kids pull out one of those 8 lbs books, lay it on the floor (it might crack the table), and together we are mentally transported back in time. Pictures are like instant time machines. "Oh, Mommy, there I am as a baby, and you are holding me...why is my face all scrunched up and splotchy?" And immediately my wife and I are transported back to that hospital room in Abilene when our first daughter was born. My in-laws got up in the middle of the night and drove from Austin to be there just minutes after she took her first breaths. That picture takes us back there.

*Pictures of our wedding day (man, I was a handsome devil). I can still see Jennifer walking down the isle. What a great day.
*Pictures of the trip to Florida and the kids playing in the sand...how we laughed.
*Pictures of swimming, great friends, old houses, dead grandparents, Mom and Dad...
They all bring back vivid and poignant memories.

Do you know the one thing I've noticed about picture albums? In all the photo albums I've ever seen -mine and plenty of others - everyone is having a good time. Yes, there are the "still lifes," and there are even a few "candid" photos, but to a person, the photos we choose to keep and remember are the happy ones. I've never seen an album that captured the other half of life. Can you imagine? "Oh, that one. Yea, that is my Dad yelling at my brother. He broke an antique family lamp. See the veins popping out of his neck? It was worth a ton of money and had been in our family for a few hundred years. My Dad still hasn't gotten over it completely." Or, "That one? Oh, that is at the lawyer's office. That is when Kevin and I signed the divorce papers. We fought about who was going to get the house for three months." There are no pictures in our books of children getting picked up by Child Protective Services, or elder abuse, or brothers abusing sisters, or kids stealing from their parents. We don't keep photos that remind us of the broken side of life.

The Case of the Missing Photos isn't really all that much of a mystery. We don't want to be reminded. I know I don't want my faults and flaws, my twistedness, and my sin out there in broad daylight for anyone to see. I would - and I'm betting you would too - rather it be hidden away, locked up in a rarely used memory vault for all time, never to be taken out and never to be spoken of...as if that part of me never existed.

You know what I find incredible? Not that Ancient Israel kept a photo album. That isn't too extraordinary, most societies keep records. What is amazing to me is that Israel didn't just keep photos of the good part of her life. Israel kept photos of the hard part of her life too. Israel kept photos, or the written equivalent of photos, of her painful-to-look-at past. Can you imagine how hard it was for the Israel scrap-booker to include that picture of Abraham lying? Oh, to include the picture of Abraham packing up donkeys with all his household belongs and leaving his hometown because God told him to, was a no brainer. They were proud of that photo. Showing Abraham's faithfulness is easy. But depicting your hero grandfather's faith-less-ness...well, why would you want that in your family album? Or why, for instance, include pictures of the great grandaddy of Israel, Moses, as a murder? Can't you hear it, "Oh, that was taken in Egypt. It is my great-grandfather stabbing a fellow. Yea, he had to leave the country after that."

I know why I don't include those types of pictures in my albums, but why did Israel choose to include them? Those risque black and white Polaroids of Israel laughing and making eyes, of tossing back her dark black hair while in the embrace of another man, of her lips kissing one that isn't her husband; why include that one? Or, that shadowed snap shot of Peter's contorted lips as he spoke denial around the courtyard fire; why include that one? Or, that freeze frame of robes billowing as the disciples run away from Jesus in the garden; why include that one? We know why Israel included all the pictures of faith and hope in her album, but why include all the images of brokenness, sin, and dysfunction?

I believe, with all my heart, that Israel included the pictures of the other side of her life because without them she was incomplete. By only portraying half her life - the smiling happy side - Israel wouldn't have been totally honest about who she was. The important thing about a healthy future is being totally honest about your past. Israel, and later Christianity, had to always keep before them the fact that they were a bunch of really screwed up folks, and - here is the is the important point - God had rescued them from continuing to have to live like that. Their picture perfect future with God was predicated on their past photographed imperfections.

I'm excited today about the pictures that are being made for a future history book. I'm excited today about the photos that will be taken in the future for the same book, and books yet to be realized. My future will soon be my children's past. Granted, I need to attempt to make those future snapshots something my family won't be ashamed to display on the hearth. But to be honest, I hope that my entire photo collection will be on file, not just the good stuff. Much like Israel, I have a past that is sorted and filled with questionable events. But the thing is, God has rescued me from continuing to have to live like that. Because of what He has done, and continues to do, I'm not afraid to own those hard to view photos. Those pictures of what was wrong, bad, and sinful in my life only provide a vivid portrait of His incredible grace.