My photographer friend
Camden Bennett took some pictures of my wife and me a few weeks ago. Then he
uploaded them to his website and gave us access to them via a password. Pretty
nifty.
So I downloaded the
pictures to my laptop, and decided to make some prints at everyone’s fine arts
center, Costco. They went from my computer to the Costco photo center website,
where I selected the size prints I wanted, and placed my order. We picked up
the prints about 2 hours later.
A great photographer
gets not just the colors right, not just the contours of face and body. Somehow
the real person shines through. The slight stubbornness of the jaw, a twinkle
of mischief in the eyes, a laugh about to bust through at the corner of the
lips. And what I like about Cam’s photos is that they show not just the real
person, but the best of the real person.
I have prints Cam did
of my grandchildren, my sons and daughters-in-law. They’re not photoshopped
idealized versions of my family. I think
they capture each one as we really are. But we look our best.
These prints reminded
me of one of the great doctrines of our faith - the resurrection. Here’s what I
mean.
It used to be that the
original photographic images were captured on film, or on special plates.
Destroy the film (or the plates) and only the prints remain. But with the
advent of digital photography, the original images go to “the cloud” - a
network of servers all over the world.
Our family photos are
still there. In 30 years, if someone wanted to download pictures of Dionne and
me from a breezy autumn afternoon in Pine Valley, California, they could do it.
There we would be, just as we were in November of 2016.
When we die in Christ,
our real self leaves our old body behind. In time the physical husk wastes
away, and no trace of us is left. But our real self, the humor and joy,
the gifts and grit of us, the unique stamp of genetics and wisdom and
sanctification that molds us, all of that goes to the Cloud, where Christ is.
The Bible teaches not
just the immortality of the soul but the resurrection of the body. One day God
will download the real us, the digital blueprint of our humanity, and we’ll be
our real and best selves again. Even more real and even better than the warm
sunshine of a fall afternoon among the turning leaves. We’ll be who we’ve been
created to be, soul and body together forever.
You could see Camden
Bennett’s landscape photography at Dream West Photography, and
contact him if you ever need family portraits.
