Visual Stories

Recently, I was looking through my camera roll to find some pictures of my husband and me to create a reel on Instagram for our 22nd anniversary.  Any time I look through my pictures it is like a walk down memory lane.  Photos have a way of transporting me back to what I was feeling, smelling, and experiencing at various times and places.  

As we have been talking about the practice of journaling this month I was thinking about how pictures are another way that we can keep a record of our stories.  Maybe writing your story down feels difficult.  Perhaps you are in a season where you don’t know what to say, or maybe the words are too hard, but maybe you can document your story another way.  

Throughout history, there have been a variety of ways that stories have been recorded.  The oral tradition of passing along stories is still used today.  How many times have you found yourself out with friends or at a family gathering and suddenly you are recounting the antics of days gone by?  The details in those stories might change a little each time the stories are told, but the main points usually remain the same.  

Stories have also been documented with hieroglyphics, art, poetry, literature, music and so much more.  

Maybe a traditional journal isn’t the best way for you to record the ways that you see God at work in your story.  Maybe you would prefer to be intentional about taking pictures as you walk through a certain season.  Maybe you would like to write poems.  Maybe you would like to write a book or a song or a play.  

I think the main goal is finding ways to remember.  To remember how we have seen God’s faithfulness in previous seasons.  To remember when we were sad or broken or grieving and how God met us and comforted us.  To remember the moments of the miraculous.  To recount the friends who walked with us through every season.  To recall the way the Spirit guided us.  To see how we have grown.  To acknowledge the altars that have been built along the way.  

It always feels like a gift to me when I am able to hear stories or read accounts of how others have seen God’s faithfulness in their story, and to be reminded that in the highs and the lows we are never alone.  May you see evidence of God in your story this week.  

~  Melissa