Several years ago, as my mom was moving from the old farm house and we were packing things up after my dad had died, I remember coming across boxes of pictures and slides. We weren’t simply packing things up, but also having to get rid of a lot of things, scaling down from the old house to a small two bedroom apartment for my mom.
Even in the days before digital cameras, when every picture you took cost money, whether it turned out or not, almost 40 years of pictures added up. Pictures of holidays and family events, but also of my parents’ many float trips and campouts. For years they were apart of a group that went white-water kayaking and canoeing around the country—they even competed on the national level for a few years. Again, you can imagine all the variety of people and places. I can’t recall how many times we wondered, “Who is that?” You can probably also imagine that it was hard to throw out even pictures of people she couldn’t recall.
There is something about the image of a person that is meaningful and valuable. Even though in a logical sense, throwing away a picture of someone that no body can even remember who they are and is just going to sit in a box, forgotten in a closet until someone else comes along after someone has died to then throw them away, is not a big deal, it can still leave a sting. I think that there is an instinct within us that the way we treat an image of someone reflects on how we are treating that person.
Today, the internet has added instant access to a near infinite number of pictures and artwork; along with the ease and accessibility of printing. Images have lost some of their impact and meaning, but not entirely. While we may have become desensitized there remains a fundamental relationship between an image, whether it is a printed picture or a small figurine (which have also become ordinary and commonplace), and the person it represents.
Think about going through an old picture box, how that would feel to throw away a picture of your grandmother or your father. Now, think about last week’s bulletin and the picture of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. Can you imagine looking at his image and throwing it in the trash?! Think of all of the other disposable images, or cheaply made items with the image of the Son of God on them. In Him we see the Father and even if it seems simple to reproduce given today’s technology, it is the image that is sacred and holy. Shouldn’t anything with such an image and the Face of God be something intended to last and treated with dignity.
On a practical note. Moving forward, we will not use images of our Lord for things intended to be disposed of, and to avoid cheap images of the Son of God.