The Value of Pictures

During the past several weeks I pulled together a collection of photographs of our oldest grandchild, Paige, who graduated yesterday from Ogden High School. When she was a baby it was before digital cameras were the implement of choice. I had a fairly new SLR camera that I worked in overdrive every chance I had to get pictures of my beautiful new granddaughter. Fortunately most of the photographs were saved on CDs or on my computer so it was just a matter of looking through all the pictures, choosing favorites and saving them all to one folder.

 Looking through all those images was a lot like reliving 19 years in time. The first grandchild, especially, is such an awe inspiring event that most grandparents become instant paparazzi, at least for a while. You suddenly understand that each moment is fleeting and there is an urge to capture every unique expression because you know that the child will be an adult before you know it. And here we are; it has come to pass.

Photographs remind you of the happy times that were shared. They tell a story of a life that is well-lived, of experiences, of challenges, of successes and of love that surrounded a life. They show who you once were and how you became the person you are today. They show how you were molded and changed. They are evidence of how much you have learned and how much you have grown, and of how much you were and are loved.

"Then God said, 'Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.' So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them," (Genesis 1:26-27 NIV).

Photo: My son Brent and his beautiful daughter, Paige Nicole, May 21, 2017.