Importance of photos

“Mommy, you mean there is no picture of me at all when I was a baby?”  He asked yet another time. To answer him, I quickly went searching through carefully kept records for the things and pictures that I stored about him through the years and brought them to him. The question arose after looking through several different pictures of his older sister. Being the first child, a lot of her infancy was captured in photographs, capturing all her growth milestones.

It is unbelievable to see how far we have come and what better way to capture all those memories than through photographs.  There are pictures of her mother heavily pregnant, there are pictures of her right after birth in hospital, on the way from hospital to all the initial happenings at home. Her journey is beautifully documented and it is wonderful to behold.

I have no pictures of when I was a child, despite there being several of my older brothers in my mother’s albums. I later discovered that the children born after the first tend to miss out on this privilege, perhaps because a lot of the excitement wanes after the first child.

Nonetheless, there is a reasonable collection of pictures and memories of the second child and I showed him his collection. There are scanned pictures of him in the womb, the congratulatory cards and messages that were brought on his arrival, a few photographs of his earlier years and little notes and papers he wrote during his formative years. I also kept all his school diaries. He smiled and laughed heartily when he saw his mementos and how challenged he was!

Going through these collected items continues to bring back a whole truckload of beautiful memories. They show us how far we have moved in this journey and they bring a deep appreciation of the amazing work and blessings of God. Until you look back and rewind and replay the scenes, you may not realise just how incredible and gracious God has been in carrying you through the hills and valleys of life.

Recently, it really dawned on me that we must be deliberate in keeping records by taking pictures and videos often. You see we live in times where even the phones which are not smart have an option for a camera. One does not necessarily have to go to a photo studio or to spend heavily on video equipment to capture some of these priceless moments growing up.

Children grow up so fast! Time flies and once it is gone, it is actually gone. The only way to live and re-live these moments is by capturing them. I am so glad I have a significant collection for each of the children.

Wisdom teaches us to document our lives for the sake of those that will come after us. Let them find landmarks to show them their history and to teach them invaluable lessons.