The Evolution of Photos

Over Christmas break, my mom and my sister went through the giant tote full of old pictures and tried to sort them out. The first step was throwing away old pictures that they no longer cared about/duplicates/unnneeded ones. Then they made piles of whose were whose. I helped them one of the days, and had a really fun time looking at my past. I was a skinny little round-faced girl with stringy blond hair who wore tee-shirts that didn't fit and old blue jeans most of the time. We had a dog named Barney and an awesome goat named Princess.

The pictures from my teenage years are less than attractive. I had curly hair and big glasses (which, by the way, were just as stylish as anyone's). A lot of the early high school ones are with my friend Bethany (Who, I was told looked like my sister). Later high school ones are with Daniel.


This week I decided to update some of my frames around the house. I went through some a lot of photos to select the right ones (and, the never ending process still isn't complete). It's funny how the last five years have changed so much. First, we had fun pictures from our college/high school years hanging. There were a lot of pictures of friends and fun events.
Then, it turned into a lot of wedding photos from friends' weddings. Now, we're upgrading to baby photos.


Sometimes I wish I could just pick out a picture and do the Mary Poppins thing and just jump inside and resume life from there. i wish I could go back to dancing with my dog barney while I wait for the bus, or dressing up in stupid costumes with the neighbor kids, or marching band, or awesome college hang outs. It would be fun. But I think at some point, I'll look at the pictures from today and think the same thing. "Oh, remember when our kids were all little and we did this?" I hope that i cherish these times when I'm older. I also hope they go by soon. Maybe that's part of being an eternal being trapped in a finite body within time. Maybe that's why I can't wait for heaven.

One of my very favorite songs is called "Old Clothes" by randy Stonehill. I sing it to myself pretty often, especially when I travel down memory lane with keepsakes and pictures.


Toys from my childhood
old photographs
left in this dusty old suitcase
things we once cherished
are lost with the past
Seek out the treasure that always will last

So I'm packing up my old clothes
with my old and foolish ways
they just don't seem to fit me
anymore
I see the light of morning
with different eyes today
and I'm giving my tomorrows to the Lord

So many heroes
who never came through
too many roads going nowhere
Jesus was whispering
I still love you.
With a love that makes
all things new.

So I'm packing up my old clothes
with my old and foolish ways
they just don't seem to fit me
anymore
I see the light of Jesus
with different eyes today
and I'm giving my tomorrows to the Lord