At the church where I work, I found some old photo directories the other day. I had seen the 2010 one, but I didn't know that 2000, 2002, and 2006 were just a few feet from my desk this whole time! Lots of people have heard about it by now, either through my excited FB post or in person. It was, as always, fun to see old-school hairdos and style changes, but these old pictures brought me more than entertainment. They gave me a deep sense of joy and gratitude.
I saw a lot of changes; a few people migrated from one family picture to another, or they were single in one edition and married in the next. Some people lost spouses. Children were born and grew up. Some of the children moved away, and others moved to their own separate pictures as adults and even had kids of their own.
These many changes, major and minor, expected and unforeseen, are basically...life. Even someone whose pictures have not changed appreciably over the years--long married, long single, no kids, etc.--is changing, sometimes at an astonishing rate. And you know what I saw in the directories? The church is there for all of it. The church is a container for all that change, and ideally it welcomes and embraces us in all those stages. It lifts my heart to see pictures of a lot of different kinds of families and remember that they are the church, we are the church together. No matter who else is in your picture, and no matter what your hair looks like.
