Recently I’ve been going through lots of old photos and videos, in an attempt to free up some space on my iPad. Some make me smile, some remind me of old sadnesses, some make me cringe, some make me laugh out loud. But mostly, they make me immensely grateful and, in the right sense, proud, that I have such a fantastic family.
The thought came to me: I wonder if God looks at old photos of his children? Imagine Him reliving that moment when the penny finally dropped and you understood His offer of salvation in Christ. Or the moment you committed your life to Him. Or the day you got baptised in water. Can you see the smile on His face as you entered His family? Or hear His laugh as He filled you with His Holy Spirit?
Of course, God doesn’t need photographic records, He is omnipresent – He exists outside of Time and is fully and completely present in every moment of your life, past, present and future. But the point is, He is a Father. In fact anything we know of family comes from His Fatherhood (Eph 3:15).
And as He looks at the lives of His children in the past, the present and the future (without the need of photographic assistance), He shares all our joys and sorrows, in fact all our emotions. He feels for us, because He knows through the experience of His Son just what life is like. And because He loves us so much, He longs to walk through it with us, to answer our prayers, to pour out blessing on us.
Because He is the ultimate Father.
But I still love to think of Him looking through His photo albums…
