I’ve always been a glutton… a photo glutton. I cam
e by it naturally, since Mom was one, too. But as is often the case, the next generation takes everything to an extreme.
Mom got her first camera as a teenager, unique in the 1920’s. Her albums show the homes and rooms in which she grew up, as well as her friends. She established a babysitting business at 16 and pictured her charges. She taught piano lessons and photographed her students. She also snapped photos of the beaus she dated.
As a kid, I remember Mom stepping into a dark closet to change her film. If I put my hand on the outside doorknob, she’d shriek, “Don’t open that door! You’ll ruin my pictures!”
By the time I was grown, I knew photographs were important. Mom let us use her camera on occasion and bought each of us our own, encouraging us to chronicle life through a lens. Today I have the excess to prove I took her advice to heart.
I’d say 196 albums and 32 separate photo scrapbooks definitely constitute gluttony. Storage has been a challenge, particularly after we moved to a smaller house. I tried to pawn the albums off on several of our grown children, who take pictures religiously but store them on line. “Scan ‘em, Mom, and put ‘em all on a few disks. You’ll get your shelf space back.”
After studying that process, I know I don’t have enough hours left in life to complete that job. Besides, at the end of it, I’d still have to deal with the hard copies. Renting a dumpster just doesn’t seem right.
It’s interesting no one wants to house the albums, but everyone wants to page through them. When I make my next move, whether to an old folks home or heaven, the albums will be in jeopardy. Maybe our seven kids will divide them seven ways, though that would amount to 32 apiece, still a dilemma.
We’ve used many of our pictures to make greeting cards, as enlargements at parties, to prove tale-telling true or false, to remember who attended this or that event, and in this blog. Their most valuable use, however, is to insure we’ll never forget details. Photos of loved ones who’ve passed away become precious beyond description, and I’ve enjoyed studying Nate’s face in many of the albums since he died. The pictures remind me of all he’s done and who he was.
God has picture albums, too. He didn’t click a camera but described in visual detail the “photos” he wanted his “children” to remember. I counted 12 times he verbally reminded the Israelites of his parting of the Red Sea, a dramatic picture of power and creativity. “Don’t forget!” he’d say, as he reminded them he was still the same God.
He “showed” them his work during creation, how he provided manna in the desert, the patriarchs and their deeds and Christ’s work on the cross. These and many others were snapshots of history God wanted them (and us) to remember. In a way, the Bible’s 66 books are the albums, and their words are the pictures. On those pages, we “see” God and his truth. And just like in the Nyman albums, we see where we’ve come from. God’s photo collection also shows us where we’re going, which no earthly snapshots can do.
So, if the house catches on fire, I’ll try to grab our 196 + 32 albums, although it would be smarter (and quicker) to reach for the one album-set that truly matters, and that’s God’s.
“Give thanks to him who parted the Red Sea. His faithful love endures forever.” (Psalm 136:13)
I look at a few albums every time I’m in Shorewood. I love that you’ve created and kept all those albums. . .for each reason you stated plus a few of my own. I think I inherited the photo glutton tendency and I also think it’s WONDERFUL!
The picture of the Red Sea took me back to Kenneth Taylor’s “The Bible in Pictures for Little Eyes”. Even now when I hear Biblical stories the first pictures that come to my mind are from this book. I believe most of them were classic art work.
Well said Margaret. The graphic pictures in scripture fill our hearts and minds, pictures of Grace, Love, Justice, Fear, Obedience, Honor, Beauty, Peace, Joy, Heaven, Streets of Gold, Humility, Servanthood, Surrender, Pride, Kindness, Sin, and Salvation plus many more. These pictures touch and reshape our souls and lives, creating in us an image that hopefully grows closer to Jesus’s image. God has given us the best camera ever.
2 Peter 3:18 (New International Version)
But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be glory both now and forever! Amen.
Pictures show us where we come from, Who we come from and gift our lives with memories. Jesus shows us where we are going and gift our lives with His character.
I’m going to make sure that Jim reads this and sees the picture of all your albums. He is a chronicler(?) of all that happens in our family. Our kids tease him about his pictures of the doors of every hotel room we’ve stayed in when we’ve traveled. He will be glad that he has company.
I call it a “Delightful Dilemma” Perhaps Skylar will take charge of “Grandma’s Gifts”. I store the albums, and now the discs, and have drawers of movie reels, slides, and video. I still have Dad’s old camera, that has an accordian type, slide bar.
Your kids sound like my kids; still going through them, when they come home. I love every minute of it!!
I inherited photo gluttony too & I’m proud of it. 🙂
Hi Margaret,
When I think of God’s “teaching style” I often see Him as very visual, very picture oriented. This despite that behind everything is language, as in the beginning was the Word and all things were spoken into existence. It seems He understood a “picture is worth a thousand words” long before someone coined the phrase.
I think of the gut-wrenching visual when the first animal was slain for sin- that must have never left the minds of Adam and Eve. I think of how often God had the prophets provide a picture to the people- having Hosea marry a prostitute for example, as a reminder to all of Israel of their unfaithfulness to God and His relentless and passionate pursuit of them. I think of Jesus playfully picking up a plank and pretending to insert it in His eye- how could anyone in that audience forget again how easily we maximize others’ shortcomings and minimize our own.
I don’t think there’s a more powerful picture than the cross itself. I cannot begin to comprehend how offensive sin is to God, but I can get an inkling when I see the extent He went to keep us from it’s consequences.
Your shelf of memories is more than impressive, and it would be more than daunting to scan them onto your computer! I still use a disposable, so I’m way behind the times. I carry one in my hand when I run 5K’s with my daughter- if I lose it or it gets rained on, no big loss.
There are worse targets of gluttony!
Love,
Terry
Such great memories are held in those family albums! I thought I had alot until I saw your shelves of albums. I know what you mean about wondering what will happen to all the precious albums when we leave this earth. I have slowly been scanning ours to disk and then put in a fireproof box. At times, the task seems ominous and tediously slow. I started doing that when our older relatives passed on and we wanted a way to share them with the other relatives. I wonder if it will be as important to our children as it is to me. I think there are companies who can do it for us and it might be well worth the price to have it done more quickly by someone else. Our children today have the ease of digital storage.
Put this on our to-do-list for June!
Thank you for passing this trait down to me also! I always enjoyed looking through your albums over the years and have committed myself to having the same amount of them in my household. I’m well on my way, but, they do take up A LOT of room 😉