The fact that we are taking our family’s Christmas picture two days after Christmas and sending out a letter in mid-January is evidence of the insanity that sometimes defines our family. Always running late, frequently missing important deadlines, doing the best we can to keep up with the daily demands of each individual that lives under our roof.
After corralling everyone onto
the front porch, rearranging a mis-buttoned shirt here, straightening some
flyaway hair there, and adjusting the settings on the camera, we are finally
ready. Smile, everyone! The picture,
after all of the fuss, actually turns out pretty nice. The image is exactly what we hope to portray:
a beautiful, “perfect” family. Loving, kind, affectionate, calm, peaceful. Joy on every face.
The picture does not, however,
depict the whole story. The story of
what our family is really like behind the lens:
constant messes, frequent drama, occasional yelling, people running here
and there, sibling rivalry erupting at the most inopportune times, tantrums
from the little ones (and sometimes the big ones too!), the perpetual struggle
for patience, the inevitable exhaustion.
The picture also doesn’t
reveal the whole story in all of its beauty.
The remarkable truth that underlying all of the noise and chaos, there is
a sense of design and purpose. We see glimpses
of compassion, hope, sacrifice, friendship, and true, unconditional love. There is the expanding and maturing and the building
of inner character that happen in sudden, unexpected ways, so imperceptible in
their growth that, if we are not purposefully looking for them, we may miss
them altogether.
