35 mm Life

I bought my daughter an old school 35 mm disposable camera. There is something thrilling about hunting for on point photographs to take with the twenty-seven exposures wound tightly inside and the anticipation of waiting to get the film developed. It’s a toss up as to whether photographic efforts will be epic fails or glory shots. A waiting game.

In this 35 mm life, we don’t always get to choose which exposures we would like to have heaping helpings of on our camera reel and which we’d prefer to omit altogether.

Vacations.
Hilarious family pictures.
Beautiful scenery.

Fill the reel.

Cancer.
Unexpected tragedy.
Continual calamities.

Preferable omission.

In His loving-kindness, the Lord provides so that we don’t walk our earthly exposures alone.

November last, my husband received a phone call that his maternal grandmother had passed away. Having lost his mom to cancer five days before his twelfth birthday, his grandmother took on that maternal role in his life. Even though this call was eventually to be expected, grief overwhelmed.

A group of his mom’s best friends rallied around him at his grandmother’s funeral, albeit over thirty years since his mom passed away. They loved on him and lived out the beauty of the gospel in strengthening him during that time.

God gave the glory shot. And He gets the glory.

Seven years ago yesterday, my dad passed away from brain cancer. In the few weeks prior, a double rainbow centered above my parent’s home three days in a row. The Lord’s promise on display in living color. It was an infusion of peace and a reminder that He is in control of every shot. Even the desperate ones.

God gave the glory shot. And He gets the glory.

I am increasingly grateful and humbly in awe of His greatness to take the epic fails and glory shots of my life and weave them into a testimony.

Isaiah 55:8-9 reminds, “”For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the Lord. As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.”

He is sovereign over all things.

I am looking forward to getting my daughter’s film developed after she completes her capture worthy quest with her camera. Will the photographs turn out the way she hoped? Time will tell. A waiting game.

In the waiting and the wondering, we can relish in the joy of the journey.

And give God control of every shot in our 35 mm life.

Heavenly Father, thank You for the breath in my lungs. Thank You for Your perfect provision. Help me have peace in the release of placing myself in full submission to You alone through each exposure on the camera reel of my life. May I hunger and thirst for Your righteousness. You are the vine, Father, and we are the branches. Apart from You, we can do nothing. Gracious Lord, teach us to know Your will and desire to know You more each day. Amen

Psalm 27:14, “Wait for the Lord; be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord.” (NIV)