comfort in the pictures...

It's been a week.

There's comfort in the flowers on my table.  

There's comfort to be found in the food I eat

and the words and hugs of loved ones.

There's also comfort in the pictures.

Jameson and his friend enjoying smores at the ruf campfire

Because in the moments when it feels like the world has flipped upside down, 

and nothing is as it should be,

the pictures tell me

there is joy.

There is happiness.

And there are good memories being made.

Road trip 

Through times I won't necessarily want to remember, there are still those I will.  

Like his first swim lesson.

Like her incessant attempts to do a handstand in the living room.

Like their first football game.

And just like life, I'm learning the published pictures don't have to be perfect.

The crinkled-up-nose and fake smile doesn't need to go in the delete pile.

There is laughter, beauty and truth here.

We are all in process.

Life isn't a perfectly posed picture.

sassy girl

It's often a tangled, messy web of joys and sorrows.

It's getting knocked down, and learning how to get back up again.

It's a journey to find peace and joy in the midst of chaos and sorrow.

wrapping up his baby

And in the middle of it all are some of the quietest, most tender moments.

I struggle to embrace what God has appointed for me.

And I simultaneously give Him praise for all that He has given.

There is comfort in the pictures.