Picture This

Yesterday at work I got in a conversation with a woman about looking back at old photos and wondering why we thought we looked good and what exactly we were thinking. She shared about a particular outfit captured on film that she felt very fashionable wearing at the time, but now brings her family to their knees in laughter.

This led her to a story about a family photo that her husband wanted to use in an article that was being written about him recently. She put the kibosh on it, as she felt certain that the publication of said photo would bring irreparable damage to their relationship with their now forty year old daughter. It seems the picture immortalizes her in Junior High sporting braces and Farrah Fawcett winged bangs, that her mom had advised her against.

I can only imagine.

We have some pictures like that – of us and of our kids. Photos that forever hold us in places in time where your hair produced more oil than body, the size of your teeth hadn’t caught up with your mouth, and contacts were not an option so you chose glasses that covered three fourths of your face.

I waiver between hysterical laughter and severe cringing when I look at some of my old pictures. But I never do that over our kids. There was no such phase as gawky to me. Our Rachel once told me she didn’t believe me when I said she looked good because if she had 15 toes and was ugly as a toad I would tell her she was beautiful.

It’s true.

I loved them in all their phases, although I would be lying if I didn’t say there were times I didn’t particularly “like” them. Sorry kids.
But I am an imperfect parent who is flawed and fleshly and somewhat gawky herself a lot of days.

I am so thankful that we have a Father who loves us perfectly all the time. As we have moved through the stages of life, He has looked on our physical stature and our spiritual stature with unwavering love.

It is love that corrects, guides, disciplines, teaches and transforms. It is love that loved us before we even knew Him. He even loved us before the foundation of the world. A love that lasts through eternity, which in the words of our youngest when he was about 4, seems like it is going to last for a really long time!

My prayer for you today is that you would realize the great LOVE the Father has for YOU and for the knowledge of His LOVE to fill every fiber of your being