I’ve been thinking about the term legacy lately.  

I have a friend. Her name is Laura. Laura takes pictures. We’ve all heard the saying, “A picture is worth a thousand words.” If anyone knows the meaning behind that saying, it’s my friend Laura. Laura has an incredible story. You can read about her story at Photo Legacy Project. 

For those of us who live in the western world, we see thousands of pictures on a daily basis. Most of us are likely to have hundreds or thousands of photos in our own personal collection. Those born in the last  decade or so are likely to have a 3-D, colored photo of himself or herself as the size of a peanut in the womb before they were even born.  

But as Laura and many others know, this is not the case in the majority of the world. Can you imagine how life would be different if you had never seen, let alone owned, a single photo of yourself? I can’t. I have entire albums of photos of me as a baby and a child I pray remain caked in dust in the closet of my parents’ house and yet, there are some who are well into their adult lives who have never seen themselves in photo form and who may never see themselves at all. (Owning a mirror is a luxury as well).  

Laura does something pretty incredible with her photos. She travels to a number of countries with the intent of photographing individuals and leaving the photo in their hands when she leaves. There are some pretty incredible stories on how this has been so influential on her website as well.  In most cases, the photo someone receives from Laura is the only photo they will ever have of themselves.  And if someone were to pass on, which in several countries in Africa, this takes places far too often and at far too young of age, it might be the only photograph someone has of a lost loved one.

 It is the image of their legacy.  

This has provoked a lot of thought on my part about the legacy I am leaving behind as an individual and as part of the western church. 

 I end pondering the thought, if someone came along and took a single shot of me in action on a random day, what thousand words would be communicated through that one image? (Other than the obvious, "man she's funny looking!" of course).