God’s Scrapbook

Even though I grew up the daughter of a photographer, it felt very strange to have the “focus” completely on me. But it was very fun to see Bethany at her best, always thinking ahead to the next shot as she was busy snapping. She got some great shots, considering the subject matter, and I’ll try to share them here tomorrow or the next day.

The experience reminded me of a short devotion that I wrote for my Mom’s group a few years ago and I decided to post it here today. I hope you enjoy it!

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I just love digital cameras. I take thousands of photos of my family and I just love sorting through them on the computer. I can delete the bad ones and keep only the best. Blurry shot? delete. Closed eyes? delete. Kid sneering at the camera? delete. I look too fat? DELETE! Brother hugs his sister? Keep. Dad and daughter smiling at each other? Keep. I look okay? Keep. Nah, delete. Son sneaking a cookie with a mischievous smile? Well, okay, keep. Then I go back and look at what’s left. Only the good, the cute, the memorable, the best. The rest is forgotten.

In my closet I have shoeboxes full of bad photographs from my old 35 mm camera. The good ones made the album, the rest are tucked into a box. I couldn’t just throw them out for some reason. So they are hidden, but not forgotten.

It struck me today that maybe God has a digital camera. He sees all of our moments — the good, the bad, the wart-and-muck covered ugly. But it seems like all we have to do is ask, and *poof* our worst moments are deleted. I’d like to think he files our great moments in a beautiful scrapbook that he will show us someday. So when we do some good for someone (hug our sister) — keep. Have a moment of doubt (blurry shot) — delete. Watch tv instead of doing our quiet time (closed eyes) — delete. Shake our fist at God (sneer at camera) — delete. Pray with our kids — keep. Sing a song of praise — keep. Pray for a friend — keep. Smile at someone on the street — keep.

Those bad moments are not tucked away in a shoebox in God’s closet. They’re not sitting in a file somewhere in His computer. They are gone. Cleaned forever.

My prayer for the day is that I can add a shot or two to my (God’s) scrapbook today.