Popcorn's Portrait

Family portraits....aren't they lovely? Posed, pretty, and everyone looking dapper. The sun just so in a cloudless sky, our faces awash in beautiful light. The long lens of the fancy camera capturing just the right glint in the eye and cock of the head. Freeze framing what we wish our lives looked like every day. But because we are frail creatures of dust, family pictures only tell part of the story. Life and love within the confines of family isn't as perfect or as easy as it appears in a thumbnail shot. Christ loves us unconditionally, no strings attached, even though we are vastly imperfect. I tend to attach requirements to the love I am willing to give because I am human. In a way, I require a certain element of perfection measured in relation to my needs. Do you bring me flowers? Do you whisper enough sweet nothings in my ear? Do you obey me? Do you make grades that I can tell my friends about and be proud of? Will you get into a college that will be a fitting reflection of my success? Do you make curfew? Do you wear what I want you to? Do I approve of your friends? Do you celebrate my birthday with enough fanfare? Do you do you do you??? Everything loops back to me me my my. God gives us the opportunity to practice loving others unconditionally starting with our family. He designed families as little worlds in which we learn things, important lessons about ourselves through our relationships with our beloved husbands, fathers, wives, mothers, sons, and daughters. Within the context of family we can keep on loving each other when we are disappointed, disgruntled, grumpy, moody, sad beyond words, filled with resentment, or just out of sorts. We can watch as a family member loses his temper, spends too much, makes poor decisions, wastes talent, or is just plain annoying and yet forgive. Isn't that what Christ does? Behind the camera's eye lie real lives with real sinners as participants brimming with opportunities to model the love, grace, and forgiveness we freely receive from Him. Family life is a laboratory of the Christian faith, a living, breathing analogy. So while the photographer's camera has snapped a flattering, picture perfect portrait of the Popcorns, we are far from perfect...but our imperfections are made bearable by living in His perfect love. 1 John 4:11 Dear friends since God loved us that much, we surely ought to love each other. No one has ever seen God. But if we love each other, God lives in us, and His love has been brought to full expression in us.

*****The Popcorns thank our friend and world renown free lance photographer Ken Childress and his assistant, Michael*****