The Story a Good Picture Tells

As a guy who dabbles in photography, I’ve learned to believe the phrase, “Every good photograph tells a story.” It’s true. A good photo should cause the viewer to stop, to wonder, to ponder what’s fully happening with the subject. Unlike video, good still shots capture a moment in time in a single frame, to be examined time and time again. So whenever I fire the shutter on my camera, I hope I’m capturing a story to be experienced later.

When I shoot sports, my first goal is to capture peak action—the baseball coming off the batter’s bat, the basketball leaving the shooter’s hand with the defender in his face, the soccer player’s foot fully cocked and her eyes fixed on the ball in front of her. But I love finding those candid moments that communicate the tone and emotion that’s happening in the game—a frustrated coach, a celebrating bench, a demonstrative fan, a colorful student section in the crowd. These shots tell the viewer, “There’s a story within these images. You need to know more.”

Over the past decade, I’ve had the privilege of using my camera when traveling on Ada Bible Church mission trips. It’s been a huge perk of my job that I’m very, very grateful to experience. On each of these trips, I’ve carried a camera to capture the sights and experiences. I’ve been able to experience some different flavors of world poverty, as well as God’s unique work and blessing in Ukraine, Haiti and China. Recently, I spent an evening pouring through the hundreds of shots I’ve taken and I found a theme that deeply resonated with me. It wasn’t the pictures of the places we went to like the Great Wall of China, the tent cities in Port-a-Prince, or the city square in Kiev. It wasn’t the posed pictures of the team members I traveled with or the shots of the work project we were involved in. It was the candid pictures of people’s faces that I took on the streets. I pulled these pictures into a separate gallery and began to examine the powerful expressions of fatigue, contemplation, joy, and anguish. They retold the story. They allowed me to feel again the emotion I had experienced in that moment of time.

Because I’m a photographer, when I read Scripture I long to see snapshots of great moments in Bible history. I would have loved to have been a press photographer when Moses parted the Red Sea, when Jericho fell to trumpet blasts, or when Elijah called down fire from heaven to burn a water-soaked altar. To have been there with my camera to catch the action at its peak, would have been awesome. But I would also have loved to capture the deeply emotional expressions of people in the stories of Scripture. Oh, to have a photo of David as he cries out to God in a time of hiding from Saul, or a picture of John as he cares for Mary at the foot of the cross. To have an image of Peter as he preaches after the Holy Spirit invades him on the day of Pentecost.

This week, Ada Bible Church begins a new series called “When God Seems Far.” It’s the story from the book of Ruth. Like a good photography, this is one of those stories where the pain in the story needs to be captured and examined for the rest of the story to be fully understood and experienced. The characters in this story, Ruth and Naomi, are enduring incredible devastation. There’s a famine in the land, the men in their lives have died, and they are left to fend for themselves in a culture that could be very cruel to women and to the poor. As you read Ruth 1 this week, allow yourself to see the emotion in Naomi’s devastated face. Can you see the weathered expression of an older woman who has lost all hope in life and in God? Just listen to Naomi as she thinks about the devastation in and around her.

“Don’t call me Naomi,” she responded. “Instead, call me Mara, for the Almighty has made life very bitter for me. I went away full, but the LORD has brought me home empty. Why call me Naomi when the LORD has caused me to suffer and the Almighty has sent such tragedy upon me?”

The Scriptures can feel raw at times. Only when we capture this raw emotion can we eventually appreciate grace and compassion of the rescue to come. Before you flip the pages of the book of Ruth to find resolution and rescue for this poor woman, allow your heart to imagine her pain-filled face.