All in a Picture | Kepley Family

All In A Picture

by Jessica Kepley

     A picture is a symbol, a celebration, an anniversary of the journey up until that point.  A picture is a moment frozen in time, a moment that can never be duplicated, a moment that is gone in a heartbeat.  A variety of things are captured in a picture.  Joy, insecurity, pride, wisdom, disappointment, love, resentment, contentment, affection, compassion, mission, ambition, grief, hope, strength, faith, can all shine through or be hidden by a smile.  A picture captures details about the persons being photographed, but it also captures details about the environment around them.  A picture, beholding the beauty of each soul and world surrounding, brings glory to God, for He is their Creator. 

My home is full of pictures.  My walls display my children's entire lives.  My albums consume many bookshelves.  There are boxes with pictures that will never be displayed, but will always inhabit memories.  There are still many more not yet printed, a task that must be completed one day.  

There have been many times that I have been so down, on the verge of checking out, about to close one chapter and try to begin another, when I have pulled out an album and completely changed my heart and mind.  Pictures remind us of the blessedness our lives are overflowing with, despite any setback or tragedy.  That is why I take so many!  It isn't an obsession with self, it is an obsession with life.  Pictures are therapy.  If art is the imitation of life, then photography must be the representation of life.

    

In representing that reality, a picture also captures who isn't there.  Their void is as obvious to the hearts of those in the picture as the people they are standing next to.  Still, like life, those portraits go on.  There are quite a few I can think of that are missing in our portraits, some by death, others by choice.  I am finally at a point in my life of acceptance.  I have let go of what is behind me and have embraced the present.  Like the rest of my life, this moment is appointed by God Himself.  Who am I to question it?  So, I will strive daily to live with the appreciation of each moment and all that each moment brings.  With every heartbeat, each moment is over.  Cherish them.  Learn from me.  I have spent so much time paralyzed by analyzation and looking back.  Those moments, only half lived, are now fully gone.  I owe it to my children, my husband, my parents, my friends, every acquaintance that crosses my path, and mostly, to God, to fully appreciate and live each moment from here forward.  

The people in my life are answered prayers.  I will not lose these gifts to the heartaches life has afforded.  I was reminded recently that growth only happens after trauma to the seed.  When a seed is watered, it must first break apart and burst open before that life encapsulated within it can grow.  So much happens beneath the soil before we see the beautiful petals sprout forth!  How true this is for every soul too!  The life we see outside of the seed, in all its glory, was produced from a painful growth process within.  Thus, just like the nourishment the soil receives from its gardener, so I am thankful to my Gardener for what He has allowed in my life, for from it, such life has blossomed.

But grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  To him be glory both now and for ever. Amen.   2 Peter 3:18 

  I am thankful for my family.  As Shakespeare once said "We few, we happy few."

My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations; knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience.  But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing.  James 1:2-4

     I hope you've taken the time to read what Jessica has written.  It's a wonderful thing to trust in the Lord & to decide not to dwell on the bad, but on the good.  We can try to ignore the circumstances in life that we don't like.  We can say we'll wait & enjoy things when life starts to happen the way we want it to, but that day may not come... & while you wait, you're missing out on the good things in your life right now.  So live each day to the fullest!  For the glory of God!