Thoughts Upon What I See in Fading Flowers

Today's picture is what is left of the mini-rose bush that I brought home for Valentine's Day. 

When you look at it, it's kind of a sad looking picture. Given that these Valentine's flowers were not 'cut flowers' but were actually part of a potted plant, I had hoped that they would maybe actually have... oh, say, 'survived'... a little longer? 

As I work on such a picture as this, it makes me think about my 'vision' in photography. (A while back, I came across a photography manifesto +David duChemin of +Craft & Vision; one of David's lines really resonated with me, the one about how photographers "do what they do to show the world what they see and feel".

Given my particular Christian background, I have certain thoughts when I take pictures such as the one in today's post. Sometimes, I am simply struck by a pretty scene and marvel at the wonders of God's creation. Other times, the thought goes a little bit deeper, perhaps something like the framed image below. 

A little religious book that has influenced my way of thinking about photography is Carolyn Brinkley's Bearing the Cross: Devotions on Albrecht Durer's Small Passion. The book is not actually about 'photography' or artistic vision; it's a Christian devotional book. It follows the various woodcuts from Albrecht Durer's Small Passion and often highlights details that a casual observer may have overlooked. (For example, a small tree in the Nativity woodcut foreshadows the tree of the cross on which Jesus would die.) 

What I have taken away from Brinkley's book about Durer is the notion that there can be a deeper meaning even for the smallest details that are intentionally included in an image. A pretty flower might not just be a pretty flower. That flower can serve as a reminder of God's providential care for His creation, a care that extends even to the smallest details of that creation. A flower might also serve as a reminder of the brevity of human life, which, for a Christian, is not a matter of despair but of hope. A Christian can look at a fading flower and be reminded of the unfading hope of the promises of Christ in the word of God.