Taking the Time

Sometimes grace is knowing when to take the time for a picture - even when the walls are pressing in with urgency, with friends who have real needs and you wish to serve them, with emails that need a response, with children who need correction....

Gathering 24 people in one place to get them to all "smile in unison" (or trying to do so) takes effort and determination. In our case, it takes a man standing up and saying "Will you please all set aside your desires and plans and needs - for ten minutes - NOW." It takes everyone else loving that man and dropping what they're doing - even if it's "more important" and saying "Yes, Dad, we're coming."




















Not an easy task, not for any of us. I know I was in the middle of a conversation I wanted to continue and which was never really recovered afterwards. I learned later my beloved was reading a weighty email - not a big deal, seeing as it didn't wander off, but still an interruption. My brother-in-law would have liked to stay longer at the side of a friend whose wife is ill and whom he wished to serve and love. That one was really hard.

I also love my father-in-law, and I want to cooperate and serve him. These pictures of "life" - of a family - are pictures that represent so much. These are special people, and we rarely all get together at the same time. Who knows when we will ever - if we will ever - be together again? What storms will we encounter? Will someone be missing "the next time"? I won't quickly forget last Fourth of July at an Aunt's 70th birthday party; Patience was with us, but she was in the car fighting a migraine and spent the last 90 minutes of our drive home vomiting over and over again. Her absence was conspicuous, and the day anything but pleasant for her, and a shadow was over it for the rest of us. A mini-storm to be sure, but we were thankful this year that she was able to be with us in person, not just in the car. And I will never forget the Fourth of July many years ago which we were spending together when we learned one of the cousins had been shot and killed the night before.




















So thanks everyone for setting aside all you were doing to come for the picture. What a terrific time we had together during our special week. I thank God for Dad, who rose to the occasion and made the picture happen, despite the difficulties and quasi-objections. I pray that we all might come to appreciate God's grace to us that we were simply able to be together and take these photos.

And if the Lord wills and allows, let's take the time to do it again. Soon.