It has pretty much become a family joke when some of us are together. As we are packing up or standing on the driveway, hugging goodbyes, and ready to get in the car, I suddenly remember and ask for us to take a picture. Everyone groans. Sometimes it happens. Sometimes it's too late.
But I am always grateful when we do.
These little snapshots are not just images stored in our phones, but experiences, memories, and visible vestiges of the albums of our hearts. Remember when?
Too often, the days speed past unnumbered and unremembered.
What if in 2022 I grasp even one "snapshot" every day? At the vespers of the day, remembering not just what I did, but remembering God in it. Not just thinking about what happened, but how I intentionally lived that day. A call made to a loved one, a text sent, responding to a nudge from God, a walk through the majesty of trees, cooking a little more to share with another, a thought written down, recognizing the extraordinary woven into the most ordinary of days. We cannot sort out the significant from the insignificant. Because indeed, there are no ordinary days nor insignificant kindnesses. It's not about all we accomplished, where we have gone, but how have we loved.
Last year on New Year's Day 2021, our family drew together from all over the States on Zoom to wish my brother a happy 70th birthday. Because of covid, we could not convene in person. There were no group pictures together, but we spent a delightful hour together, as best we could, to celebrate. We did not realize even then how significant this snapshot of time would be. We had no idea how close he was walking near the Other Side of Life. Nor did he.
My brother passed away two weeks ago from covid.
In the middle of the night, the still sudden news of his passing still resounded in my heart, memories of him crowded around my bed, experiences for which there were no pictures in an album, just snapshots in my heart. And I was grateful for the stories that we built up over time, those stitches that bound us together, the joys and the sorrows inseparable over the course of a lifetime.
God already redeems all those moments.
May this year not slip from us, but may we be changed by it and transformed in it by the Almighty, one day and then the next, treasuring the moments we do have, snapshots of life, and above all, loving each other well. And recognizing yet another precious picture in the chronicle of God's faithfulness in our lives.
My times are in Your hand.
Psalm 31. 15
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