Back in my high school days I became interested in photography. My school had photography as an elective, but I always took history electives instead, so I did what I always did when I wanted to know about something, I went to the public library and read everything they had on photography. I also saved my money and eventually bought a camera and tried out the things I had read about. After some time, I actually became a decent photographer, and even won a couple of 1^st prizes at the contests the photography club at my school put on, even though I never joined the photography club because of sports.

Not too long after that I started having vision problems and could no longer focus my camera, and I gave up photography entirely in my later 20’s. Decades later, with the advent of self -focusing digital cameras, I started taking photos again. Am I a good photographer? No, not really, but with digital you can take lots of shots of the same thing, and even I get lucky sometimes.

Sometimes I get really lucky and I see a photo in my head that I can’t see with my eyes, just over… there. I take the photo and can’t wait to see it uploaded on my computer screen, and every time this happens, I have something I can write about. Often those shots have elements that contain Biblical metaphors, sometimes they are glorious views of the Creation, and sometimes they just give me an idea. Whatever the case, photography is often a spiritual practice for me if, for no other reason, that it requires me to try and notice what God has placed around me in His Creation; even in the city.

To be honest, most of my photos are just photos, nothing at all spectacular, but even then, I consider them a “win” of sorts because people like me who have such limited vision aren’t supposed to be taking pictures, and often, aren’t even supposed to be walking around in the places I have to walk around to get some of my pictures. The mere fact that God is still letting me do this is quite enough to bring me all the closer to Him.

Maybe photography could benefit you as well.