Nice Capture!

--
It's no secret around here that I love to take pictures, although you might not know it by the infrequency of my photo excursions since I started school. How I miss heading out with my camera to capture whatever my eye is falling in love with wherever I happen to be!

The unique beauty in a moment can be what lyricist, Alan Jay Lerner once described as "a fleeting wisp of glory" (1960) (C.S. Lewis would have liked that line). It may not even last as long as it takes for the earth to turn one degree of its rotation--the light moves, shadows change, and everything is different in only minutes, even seconds. As amazing a gift as memory is, it walks a delicate dance of deciding what to remember and what to forget. The choices it makes about what it should and shouldn't retain don't always match my wishes . . . and so I take pictures.

Without pictures to remember what something really looked like, we lose details, we remember only in pieces.

Don't you wish Jesus and His disciples could have had cameras in their time? Wouldn't you love to see the huge crowd, seated on the hillside, eating their fill of the bread and fish Jesus multiplied out of one little boy's lunch? A picture of Jesus walking on water or calming the storm? Oh yeah, I would love to see those shots! Can you imagine seeing a picture of the face of Bartimaeus snapped the second his eyes worked for the first time ever, and Jesus' face was his first sight? What would it be like to see the joyous celebration when Jesus brought Lazarus back to life--wait, that one I think I CAN imagine! Oh to see the pictures that could have been captured if there had been a photographer tagging along with Jesus!!

Could it be that Jesus had a similar thought in mind in the upper room, mere hours before the culmination of all He had come to accomplish--the cross:

"And he took bread,

gave thanks and broke it,

and gave it to them, saying,

'This is my body given for you;

do this in remembrance of me.'
In the same way, after the supper he took the cup, saying,
'This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you.'"

Luke 22:19-20 NIV [emphasis mine]

I think Jesus knew we needed more than words to remind us of what He did for us. I think He knew we would need, not a photograph, but a picture nonetheless, to capture the essence of the reason He came. Jesus knew our tendency to forget, to lose details, and He knew we would need a simple, clear, permanent way to reconnect with the truth of what He accomplished.

Ever since Jesus said those now famous words, countless believers all over the world have been celebrating the Lord's Supper, receiving the bread and the wine to actively, personally remember Jesus and His unfathomable sacrifice for our sin. In these tangible symbols, Jesus handed us a snapshot we can look at again and again, a picture that shows us what He did, why He did it, and why it matters more than anything. Jesus knew that even His disciples who were in the room that night would have a hard time retaining all the details as they really were, and beyond those twelve, all of us who weren't there would need a way to REMEMBER what had happened! He wanted our memories to have a clear picture, one that shows all the colors, all the details, all the beauty of the pinnacle event in all of earth's history.

Photographers, when they want to compliment another photographer's photo, commonly say, "Nice capture!" It's a way of acknowledging what it took to create that shot and showing appreciation for the finished picture. Every time we take communion, and look long and lovingly into the truth the symbols convey, we are telling Jesus that we know what He did for us and that our hearts are forever captivated by His love--nice capture, indeed!

May our remembrance of Jesus never grow stale in the repetition, but always be filled with fresh wonder and humble astonishment each time we take communion! May we never get used to knowing just how far He went to show His love and to rescue our captive and broken hearts! May our lives always reflect the beauty of the perfect picture He gave us to remember Him by!

Lerner, A. (1960). Finale Ultimo (Camelot Reprise) [Recorded by R. Burton and Ensemble]. On Camelot (Original Broadway Cast Recording.

New Yok: Columbia Masterworks.

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Joining Ann Voskamp in counting His graces for her Multitudes on Monday

I hope you'll join in if you haven't already!

In the counting of the endless gifts I say with C. S. Lewis,

"This also is Thou!"

Counting my next 1000 Gifts, joining Ann in The Joy Dare--like a scavenger hunt for graces, gifts and glory!! Wanna come along? I dare ya!!

The continuing JOY DARE:

#1696-1737 (August 19th through September 1st)

19. 3 gifts in church
Starting things off with a rockin' jam!
Drummer Boy on drums
Pastor Jeff's wonderful message
20. 3 gifts of serving
Helping my Learning Team complete our big project for my current class
Being the family taxi driver
Fixing dinner in anticipation of everyone home after school and work
21. A gift straight, curve, turn
The straight lines of words on a page that teach and inspire
The curve of a cheek when a face lights up with a smile
Teaching She-So-Sweet to drive and the triumph of many turns completed successfully
22. 3 gifts in light
My desk lamp
Flashlight app on my phone
The ability to capture it in photographs we can keep
23. 3 gifts old
Bewitched marathon
My old Frances Hook Picture Book
My old favorite book about a pretty rock that was a "friend-maker"
24. 3 gifts moving
Stuff we are moving out of the way in preparation for new carpet upstairs
Numbers on the scale, very slowly--please let them keep moving in the right direction!
The days we're counting down on the calendar until we're all together
25. 3 gifts fragile
Good habits just begun--so easy to break before I reach the 21 days they say it takes to make a permanent habit
Soap bubbles
Life on a broken planet
26. A gift cut, sewn, buttoned
Fresh flowers in my globe
New pillows
The marvelously versatile invention of blue jeans
27. 3 gifts new
A new school year that is different from all others
Watching a new movie together and loving it: Thor!
A new family endeavor--to read The Shack together!
28. 3 gifts long awaited
New carpet!
Being in school, working on my degree!
A reason to clean the bookcase . . . finally!
29. A gift one, two, three
One loathsome task accomplished
Two loads of laundry done before breakfast
Three people dearer to me than life: Hero Husband, Drummer Boy, and She So Sweet
30. 3 gifts very small
Being right about where he lost his tip money . . . and finding it! (Well, it was kind of big to him! To me it was just one of those "nothing is really lost until mom can't find it" kind of things!)
The beautiful wee brown-eyed boy at Peet's who was just learning to walk--such triumphant joy!
The mini-rose bush I bought with the tiny, deep orange flowers. They have the most amazing petals that look marbled with a shade of orange deeper still--absolutely exquisite!
31. 3 miracles
Hearing Mike Eruzione speak and remembering the "Miracle on Ice" gold medal winning U.S. Men's Hockey Team that won something far bigger than the Olympic hockey tournament in 1980! I remember it like it was yesterday!
That we still have our house, and have paid off both our cars despite the incredible hardships of the last five years! Only a God like Yahweh!!
That after too many years of delay and thinking it would never happen, I am a little more than two months away from finishing my first year of earning my B.A. I feel like I should pinch myself every day to see if it's real!
1. 3 gifts summer
Iced Peet's Coffee with LOTS of ice
Pleasantly warm California evenings
My gorgeous salmon-colored bougainvillea blooming in riotous profusion