My oldest brother gave our family a wonderful Christmas present this past year. Combining his computer skills with information and pictures that he had collected over the years, he produced a 2009 calendar that brings surprises and memories with each turn of the calendar page.

         Each picture tells a story that transcends time. One is of a family taken at the end of the nineteenth or, at the very latest, the beginning of the twentieth century. Frozen in that style of formality characteristic of the age, if you look closely you can see some youngsters who can’t wait to replace their “Sunday” clothes with something more familiar and comfortable. Another is of a young family captured in an unguarded moment by an amateur photographer. As natural as breathing, it reveals people as they are, not as they want you to believe.

         My favorite picture is of my father, taken when he was in his early twenties.  It is the image of an unlined face, not yet revealing the ravages of three years of combat in the South Pacific, completely unaware that his life would only span twenty more years. I stared at it for a long time recently, seeing something I had never noticed. I took the picture into my wife, covered the hairline and mouth with my hands, leaving only the eyes to be seen and asked, “Who is this?” She saw what I saw. She answered with the name of our son.

         Truth be told, those pictures didn’t do any of the things that I have written. They are just pictures. They didn’t tell me any stories. I am the one who saw fidgety children. I am the one who saw a family at ease. I am the one (as well as my wife) who saw our son. It is not what they said; it is what I saw. Even so, I am convinced that what I saw is true.

         Some folks would see the same things as I. Others would see something completely different. Others wouldn’t see anything at all. In Matthew 6:22, Jesus said, “The eye is the lamp of the body. If your eyes are good, your whole body will be full of light.” In other words, what you see determines and reveals who you are. Do you see? I pray so.

Blessings, Sam