This afternoon I saw a boy my daughter’s age almost get hit by a white construction truck driven by a man who wore the look of unexpected terror upon his face. The boy’s mother wore the same expression as she screamed out her son’s name in an effort to will what she already knew was out of her control.

I had taken the boy’s picture just moments before. He told me he was praying this bee wouldn’t sting him as he hesitantly turned to give me a smile in the bluebonnets…eyes briefly off the bee; I was impressed by his valiant effort to replace his fear with his faith. I also couldn’t help but be grateful he was talking with God seconds before his fears became much greater than the bee.

As a photographer, I have unknowingly taken the last picture for a few people. It is a very strange feeling being told that this image was the last photograph: a realization of a thirteen-cent print becoming truly priceless.

If my image was taken today and it was my last picture, would I be pleased with the girl in the photograph? Would I look at her and wish she dared more? Would I wish she cared less about making sure everyone else was okay and took better care of herself? Would I wish she wrote that book, took that trip, or painted with more color? Or would I look at her and say, “You did well, my friend. I love you. God’s gotcha now and I am so pleased and thankful for who you were then and who you are now.” In honesty, it would be a mix of all the above.

Maybe this is a good exercise for us all. Looking at a picture of ourselves is different than just looking in the mirror. In a mirror we can see ourselves blink…we know we still have opportunity. Pictures don’t blink, and they are incapable of illustrating a different story than the one they are showing at that very moment in their autobiography. And I write “showing” because we are each layers of stories, overlapping dreams of the ages we have lived, a mix of responsibility and giddiness, contentment and anxiety, hope and joy, wisdom and doubt, searching and finding…we show but a brief summary of the journey we live. And a picture proves we were here in that moment: our footprints made a mark in time.

Take your most recent picture you have of yourself. Give yourself a good stare. What if that image becomes the priceless thirteen-cent print? What advice would you give that person in the picture? What words of encouragement would you share with yourself?  Because what is truly priceless is knowing right this very second you can change your life. You can put down the picture and change your life.

Say a prayer of thanks. Listen to your breath, give yourself a hug, and hear yourself say affirming words. And most importantly, see the possibility of today. Go show the world the beauty of you...a living reflection of His love...His image.

God spoke: "Let us make human beings in our image, make them reflecting our nature…."

Genesis 1:26