"Old Photos Teaching Me New Lessons About God"

Years and years ago, before there was Facebook, or blogging, my creative outlet was compiling PHOTO ALBUMS. I was constantly taking pics of "everything" and assembling them chronologically and I was very good at it. At the time my first wife passed away, I had assembled about 25 photo albums which contained much of the history of our 38 years together. Detailed pics of how we met, our courtship, marriage, friends and family were captured in those colorful and bulky books.

When I REmarried, I knew I couldn't bring all of those volumes into my new house as reminders of the past, and yet, of course, I did not want to TOSS those priceless pics.  (Those of you who've married twice will understand that it's awkward to bring tangible representations of a PAST marriage into the NEW one).

So, I decided to take photos of each page of each photo album and condense them all onto one large Flash Drive which is easily portable, easily storable and easily SHAREABLE with my three kids from my first marriage, upon completion.  Problem is, when I took the high def pics of each page, they DID NOT STAY IN THE ORDER WHICH I TOOK THEM and therefore have needed to be SORTED, page by page (started out with about 1,200 pages containing, I would guess, 3-4,000 individual pics)!! This "sorting" is being done incrementally and it's taking a long time, but it's yielding some interesting results.

   As I go through old photos, I see pics of people I'd forgotten, and it makes me remember them and able to see with 20/20 hindsight why God brought them into my life for a season.

   I relive the birth of my kids and THANK GOD they've turned out so well.

   I marvel at how quickly time passes, our lives really ARE as short as God says they are.

   I came across photos of those who've passed on, and realize that, with some I have EVERY BIBLICAL REASON to hope they're in Heaven...but with others, I have lots of fear as to where they are now.

   I see how God has PROVIDED over the years.

   I see how He blessed my business*.

   I see how FAITHFUL He has been to me, as I've aged.

I could go on and on, but I hope the point is clear: I've learned much about GOD as I've gone through those old pictures...more about who HE is regarding how He's worked in my own life.  Never as much as I've come to see about Him from reading SCRIPTURE, mind you, but old photos have taught me new lessons about Him, for which I am very, very grateful.



*See my July 15th blog for more info!!