My congregation is going to put out a new photo directory. It has been about five years since the last directory came out, and we have a new senior pastor now, so it is a good thing to do. With a large congregation, such a directory is a helpful thing to have, even if not everyone is pictured in it.
How do you feel about having your picture taken? Do you like it (or don’t mind it), or are you one who would rather avoid being photographed at all? I fall into the latter group, so I must be honest and admit that for a moment I considered not having a photo in the directory this time. My husband would have agreed with me. He’s not so crazy about being photographed, either, but we did sign up. If we hadn’t, we wouldn’t get a free directory in the fall, and I did want that!
As I was getting ready for our photo session, I found myself wondering why it is that I don’t like getting my picture taken. I had the answer almost instantly: I have never considered myself to be photogenic. I have an image in my mind of what I should look like. I’m not perfect in that image, but whenever I see a photo of myself, I don’t see the same image. I look at my image and think, “Who is that person?”
Then I remembered a Sunday School lesson from years ago, when my fourth-grade Sunday School teacher told my class that when we get to heaven, our bodies will be made perfect. At the time I wasn’t sure what that meant, but I thought it would at least mean that I wouldn’t have to wear corrective lenses anymore.
As I got older and continued in my church education, I learned that my baptism made me a child of God and that God now sees me as being perfect, because God sees me through Jesus, who is perfect. That means that even though a photograph of me today might reveal my awkward smile and my not-as-slim-as it-used-to-be body, God sees me differently. What he sees is that small cross that was placed on my forehead by my parents’ pastor when I was less than a month old.
I know that God only sees me as his precious child, a perfect image in his sight, so please pardon my lightheartedness for a moment: When I get to heaven, and if I find that a “heavenly” photo directory is going to be made, I know I finally won’t mind having my photo taken, because I will be photogenic. I will have a perfect image. I will be able to see myself as God truly sees me: His precious child. What a heavenly sight!
Kris Brugamyer is completing a second term on the churchwide executive board. She lives in Dickinson, N.D.