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Picture This


It all started when I went to my daughter’s apartment.  I am not sure what was different this time.  I have been there many times in the past.  Maybe it was where I sat.  Perhaps I was simply paying more attention than usual.  Who knows?  But that is when I began to notice.

I began to notice the variety of pictures she has in her place.  There were two or three pictures on the wall.  They were nature scenes and were quite lovely.  I am always fascinated by what type of nature scene speaks to different people.  Obviously I have known my daughter all her life.  But that does not mean I know absolutely everything about her.  That would be a mistake for any parent to think that!

I also noticed some other pictures that were framed and placed around on various shelves.  There were two or three pictures of her wedding. It was easy to remember that day.  That whole wedding thing is still a bit weird to me.  I have two daughters and both are now married.  And in each case it was odd that some guy had come into their life and became immeasurably more important than parents!  I know it is the way the world works, but that does not make it any less odd.

Another picture stopped me in my tracks.  It was a picture of my daughter with my dad---her grandfather.  Now my father has been dead for quite a long time now and I seldom think about him.  I have good memories of my dad and appreciate everything he did for me in my growing up years.  I know he liked my daughter---well, he liked both of them.  But it was the younger one who grabbed his fancy---for whatever reason.

It intrigues me that my dad and my daughter formed such a relationship.  In the picture she cannot be more than two years old.  That meant she had a little more than a decade with him before he died.  I cannot honestly nail the reason why the two of them became close.  I am happy for it and value what all that picture must convey for her.  It is a testament to relationship.

Pictures are so commonplace these days.  When we can whip out the phone and take pictures, I wonder if pictures lose the special feeling they once had?  This is not to belittle the ease of picture taking.  I like to have the ability to capture whatever I want in the moment---and wherever I am.  But if I wind up with one hundred pictures, does that make the moment or the place more special than if I had to take a camera and get only one or two?

I look back at that picture of my daughter and my dad.  Why would she need ten more pictures of herself and him?  That one photo communicates so much about their relationship.  But it does not tell everything.

It occurs to me that picture does capture a relationship.  But the relationship is always interpreted.  When I look at that picture, there is no way I can say the same thing as my daughter would say.  It would be fun to sit her beside me on the couch and ask, “So what does that relationship to your grandfather pictured in that photo mean to you?”  I could only guess what she would say.

In some ways that is as odd as her marriage.  My daughter is clearly my offspring, but she formed this relationship with my dad.  And so far as I know, I had nothing to do with it.  Whatever love my dad had for her---and I know it was significant---did not decrease that for me.  Her relationship with my dad did not hinder or lessen my relationship with him.  And she did not become less my daughter as she became more his granddaughter.

Then it hit me.  This whole picture thing is an analogy of our relationship with God.  I assume God is not sitting around somewhere with pictures of all of us surrounding the Divine Self.  And I saw not paintings of God as I scanned my daughter’s apartment.  Then I remembered my languages.  In Greek the word for image or picture is icon.  The Genesis creation account affirms that you and I---and all humanity---are created in the image and likeness of God.  We are God’s icons!  In Latin an icon is the imago---the image.  We all image God.

Then it hit me again.  Maybe this whole world is God’s “apartment.”  And we human creatures are the pictures in this Divine Apartment!  Each and every one of us is a mobile photo of a special relationship.  I am the image---the picture---of a relationship with God.  And so are you!

My very special relationship with the Holy One does not detract nor subtract from your relationship.  Love is not a zero-sum game.  It is more like the win-win scenario that everyone likes.  I must admit, I like realizing that I am an icon of God---the spitting image of the Holy One.  Imagine that!  Indeed picture that!
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