Camera Tricks

By Stan Reimer, Pratt

Our wedding album is usually stuffed in an old pie cabinet that Randy refinished long ago. It's buried under old cards and old photos. (Yes, it's yet another thing I should clean out.) But yesterday, on our 32nd wedding anniversary, I got our album out once again.

I was struck by the photo of Christ super-imposed over the photo from our wedding ceremony. I've seen it dozens of times before. But, during this Holy Week, it seemed even more significant. In 1981, at the time of our wedding, the photo was pretty innovative. It combined that familiar image of Christ knocking at the door and we two Kansas farm kids joining our hearts and families into one.

But when I was selecting the images that I wanted our photographer, Stan Reimer, to include, it was one that was important to me. To me, it represented Christ being at the center of our lives and our marriage. 

By Stan Reimer, Pratt

Today is Good Friday. Detractors may want to say that the Crucifixion and Resurrection were the ancient equivalent of camera tricks.

Good Friday seems to be anything but good. But if we get through the darkness of the Crucifixion, there is hope.

During this Lenten season, Pastor Amy has been preaching about "The Way, Walking in the Footsteps of Christ." I have been reading the book by the same name by Rev. Adam Hamilton, the pastor of the Church of the Resurrection in Leawood, as well as his Lenten devotional book. He says:

When I look at the cross, I also see a mirror held up to our souls. Each of us hears the whisper of the serpent and at times succumbs. The story of the cross is our story. ... Something in us is broken. ... When I look at the cross, it reminds me of all the things inside myself that I don't like to admit are there, all the ways I've betrayed and denied Christ or hurt other people, all that is in need of redemption and grace. The cross leads me to gratitude and awe. ... I want to walk in His footsteps. I want to live as a citizen of His kingdom. I want to love as He loved."

Rev. Adam Hamilton in The Way: Walking in the Footsteps of Christ

When Jill and Eric lived in Omaha, we visited the Holy Family Shrine a couple of different times. If I lived near there, I think I would visit there often, even though I'm not Catholic. It was beautiful. I took the photo above there and later added the text.

On that May 2010 visit, I also took this photo in the gardens there. It reminded me of this Bible verse:

Come now, let us reason together," says the Lord. "Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red as crimson, they shall be like wool."

 Isaiah 1:18

During this solemn day of Good Friday, I still look forward to the promise of Resurrection that we will celebrate on Easter Sunday.

If you're in the Stafford area, you are cordially invited to the Stafford Ministerial Alliance's Good Friday service. It will be at our church, Stafford United Methodist, at 7 PM this evening, March 29. It will feature the cantata by the choir, "Behold the Darkness," and will include candlelight litany by Stafford community pastors. Please join us!