| Luke 15:20 – “But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and felt compassion for him, and ran and embraced him and kissed him. |
Sunday morning, Christmas eve, my wife and I got up and began getting presentable for our fellow congregants for worship. She wanted to take a photo before we left, so I decided to put on a coat and tie. I got the tripod out and put our Nikon atop it. The battery was charged up and ready to go. As she began to fix breakfast, I reminded her that we needed to pose for the camera. “Oh, yes.” She got in her place by the fireplace. I hit the timed delay button and pressed the shutter release. I had 10 seconds to get beside her in the frame. Relax, smile. Click. We took another and then a close up.
I went to our desktop computer to download them out of the camera. It is a Nikon D60. We bought it about 10 years ago. As I was transferring the pics to the computer, I flashed back about 10 years. That was a strange year for me. I am very careful with things, but not that year. Oh, I was careful, but through some crazy accidents, I dropped and broke 3 cameras that year. The first was not even mine.
Mike McMahon loaned me his digital to take pictures for our company newsletter when we both worked for Gulf Coast Transport. Somehow, I broke it. I confessed to him, and promptly replaced it.
The second was a Minolta SLR that my dad gave me. It had a built-in light meter. I learned how to manually set the f stop and take good pictures with it. I let it slip about 1 foot off of my briefcase to the floor, and it was in a padded bag. I broke the light meter.
The third was the Nikon D60 we bought to make the leap to digital from film. We were on our first vacation with it. I was reading all about the settings. We stopped for gas in Winslow, Arizona, not far from the Jackson Browne statue. I had been riding shotgun, the camera in the padded bag. As I got out to pump the gas (my wife was already on her way to the restroom}, the camera came out of the bag and fell to the concrete, less than a foot. It would not turn on. I had not latched the bag. My fault. How do you tell your wife that the $400 camera was not going to record any of our vacation memories in Sedona and the Grand Canyon? I have always believed in just blurting it out. Get it over with.
I was not having a good year. I was so tired of breaking cameras. I wanted to end my streak. I wanted to turn over a new leaf and try a fresh start. Every time I handle the camera, she makes sure that the strap is around my neck. I have had to put in the time and earn her confidence in me. Like when the prodigal son returned home. He had rehearsed a speech. “How could I get back in my father’s good graces” he must have thought. What a relief when his father ran to meet him and threw his arms around him. He kissed him. Isn’t that what you want when you come home to say you are sorry?
Father in heaven, thank You for taking us back, for sending Your son to buy us back, in Jesus’ name, Amen!
-Jeff Beall
