Taking pictures with your heart

We have had the opportunity to spend another summer vacation with our family at our summer home in Finland. I am so grateful for all our moments of laughter, seriousness, talking, playing, and swimming. Memories are like beautiful gems that glitter long after the moment itself has gone by. I don't want to constantly keep living in the future with plans and dreams. It is so easily done, but for me, the journey itself must be worth the trouble. Here and Now is what we have!

So, I have started to "take pictures with my heart." What I mean by that is that I very consciously slow myself down and stop to freeze a moment in time. And then I hide and save the moment in my heart. Otherwise, I can easily miss the miracle of a moment in the middle of all the living going on, such as a special situation with those I love, family, friends, nature, and my church family. It all started for me when I took a photo of my dad in the summer of 1989. In the picture, he sits on a rock at our summer house in Finland, watching our children swim. Behind him, in the picture, you can see our Labrador Cleo amongst the blueberries.

Dad loved his family, children and grandchildren, and labradors.

So many times, when he came by our house to have a cup of coffee with us, he would look at our young children and say, "You don't get any richer than this!"

I remind myself of that very often because it's so true.

I didn't know when I took this picture of my dad sitting on the rock that this would be his last summer alive. In June the following year, he passed away from a heart attack.

Every year when I come back to Finland, and it's been 33 years since I took that picture, I walk out on those rocks to where he sat, and in my heart, I can see him there. In my heart, that moment is captured forever.

I have continued to take pictures with my heart when something happens that I want to catch and remember.

Life goes by very quickly, but there are moments we can keep and hold forever in our memories.

With joy and gratitude, you can bring forth those memories a little later and thank God for all the good things in life.

There are many memories like that that are treasures in my heart and I will carry them with me for as long as I live. I´m sure you have memories like that as well.

I think that's what Mary, the mother of Jesus, did when the shepherds came to the stable and told her and Joseph what the angels had said about the baby Jesus.

In the Bible it says, ”Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart." So if you're stressing through life, stop occasionally and freeze the moment. Capture the moment, take a picture with your heart and carry it with you as a treasure within you for all time to come.” (Luk 2:19)