This is why I love photography.
I've always liked this photo. It's probably because I can still see this moment so clearly. I can hear the chaos, the smell, the heat... Maybe it's just me- maybe you can't feel all the emotion that I do when I intentionally look into this photograph. Seven years ago I took this. No SLR, no touch ups..
This boy, about to receive his first ever Christmas present from Operation Christmas Child, he didn't really know what to expect.. all he knew was we were there to hand out these bright red and green boxes. This moment gives me butterflies, it makes remember at the age of 16, the "slap in the face"feeling that I was selfish, I was naive, I just had no idea.
When I really think back to this moment, I look in his eyes and I see anticipation for the box full of goodies, but I also see him drawn in. He's listening, but who to? I think back, I remember. Ohh, it's the pastor. In this moment, this boy is hearing the gospel. He's learning for the first time that there is a Jesus who loves this boy. This muddy boy in this battered shirt.
I can see his eyes, receiving two gifts. His eyes seem to show every inch of his heart.
It's hard to sum up everything this moment taught me, because this moment, this photograph reminds me of the moment my life changed. Back in El Salvador, seeing this extreme poverty, seeing their desperation taught me so much. It opened my eyes to a world beyond mine. It opened my eyes to real faith, to people who trust God so deeply and worship him so deeply, because they need him so deeply. They have nothing else, just their Saviour.
How small my faith is compared to them, when I find my trust in so many other things, my needs are met by so many other things, and here is this child who I'm suppose to be teaching and influencing...and blessing.. but how he taught, and influenced and blessed me.
No I'll never be the same.
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