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Photoshopping My Life

by Anthony Weber  
5/27/2012 / Christian Living


I went hiking on the Boardman River Saturday evening with my mom and two of my boys. Since the peak of the color tour passed about two weeks ago, I wasn't really expecting much from Mother Nature, so I was pleasantly surprised when the autumn colors sprang out from unexpected places. SmartPhone in hand, I hiked and took pictures with the second app I have figured out (Angry Birds was the first one).

When we got home, I uploaded the pictures to iphoto and let Mac do its magic. My mom murmured kind words about my pictures, then said with a hint of sadness, "That's even nicer than it was."

Any you know what? She was right. The pictures made our hike look a lot cooler than it was. I clicked buttons and slid bars until I made a picture that, to a large degree, was not true. The only picture that accurately captured the event was one where Vincent did NOT want his picture taken. When you see his face - that's how it was.

I was on a mission trip once in which a father and daughter were among the group. When I saw photos after the trip, the smiling, affectionate freeze frame put the lie to a trip that was full of tension, avoidance, and drama. I remember thinking, "Hey, at least they have their pictures. I hope it makes up for the trip."

As a Christian, I give allegiance to a worldview that grounds itself in words more than images. "In the beginning was the Word..." Jews eventually became know as People of the Book, and Christianity arose from the soil of language as expression, not image. In fact, the 10 Commandments make clear that God was not interested in His people trying to capture His reality or nature through images. Could it be that God was protecting us from our ability to distort and manipulate reality through the use of images?

The Bible contains lots of beautiful poetic imagery and word pictures to describe God, but that's not the same thing as the actual image. When Jesus incarnated as the express image of God, even that was temporary, not permanent.

That command about images always seemed odd to me, but I'm starting to feel differently. Is it possible that the Bible (and by extension, God) stresses the importance of words to capture history and history's God because both the power and the frailty of images are greater than that of words? Sure, images move us - one of them is worth 1,000 words, I suppose - but that great blessing can also be a great curse.

For the record, I love the fact that my hike with mom is recorded in pictures. If nothing else, the pictures will keep her life close to me even though the moment is passed.

But I will also remember, whenever I see the pictures, that the day was not quite that sunny, and the colors not quite that bright, and the lake not quite so blue.... and wonder what else about my life I have not remembered truthfully, and why real life is so bland to me that I must photoshop it to treasure it.

Anthony Weber is a pastor, teacher, husband, father, author and blogger (nightfallsandautumnleaves.blogspot.com; learningtojump.blogspot.com; empiresandmangers.blogspot.com). You can contact Anthony at [email protected]

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