Picture Perfect!

 For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.  Romans 8: 38-39

Well, the presidential election is over and there is much to comment on – still..  The commentary that is closest to my heart rest not in the politics, but in the pictures of our beloved first family.  A picture is a powerful image frozen in time; it is framed emotional memory that has the power to stoke all five senses.  A picture can never depreciate its value to its beholden. I have rather enjoyed sifting through photos of the Obama family during the election cycle.  It’s offered me a glimpse into their lives and into the heart of who they are as a family.  Flipping through photos of the first family makes me think about my own family photos.  I wonder what the outside world sees, feels and thinks when they look at pictures of my family. I think that pictures convey very powerful messages.  Sometimes those messages are intentional, sometimes not, but always left to the interpretation of the viewer.  When I look at the Obama family photos, to me those photos say, “together we are a strong, close and loving family; our bond is cemented in the secure love that we share.”  Even in their “unscripted” photos, I observe that one of the first family’s strongest languages of love is physical touch; they express love towards one another through touching – i.e. holding hands, arms around waist, hugging, head-on-shoulder, etc....  If I had to caption my own family photo it would say, “...nothing can separate us from the love of God.”  I chose that caption because disability has made several attempts at wreaking havoc in my family’s life, yet we have prevailed.  As I look back over my life in family photos, I remember the humbling beginning of our journey with disability.  I remember being camera-shy about exposing my “different” family to the world; I feared an unwelcome reception.  Going public with disability was not easy for my family.  Often, I felt stares and side-eye glances upon us.  And what was meant to be a whisper was audibly, and painfully, loud.  But in some ways, I suppose going public through pictures may be worse, for you can only assume what people are saying about you and your family.  In the early days of disability, I took great care to hide Malachi’s life-sustaining equipment from the watchful eye of the camera.  I tried to carefully tuck away the huge oxygen tank that sat in the corner of his room mocking me.  I tried to distract the camera’s eye from the ventilator tubing that coiled and hissed endlessly like a snake.  And I tried to perfectly prop Malachi up as if his scoliosis were invisible.  Let me tell you, it’s exhausting and frustrating trying to hide from your own reality!  And then one day I released it; I just let it go.  I decided, why hide?  It is what it is and we are, undeniably, who we are.  Regardless, people will make their own deductions and assumptions about our family with or without a photo.  What’s the point of worrying and hiding?  We just need to show up and be our most authentic, dazzling selves! 

How we show up in photos is how we show up in real life.  I am so grateful that my family and I have grown to the place of no longer feeling vulnerable in front of the camera.  I think that growth is a result of accepting that we are made in the image of God!  God sees the beauty of our uniqueness because after all, He did create it.  And because we are made in His image, we are a picture perfect family!

 

QUESTION OF THE DAY: How would you caption your family photo?