I remember the very first time someone called me a photographer…

It was about four years ago and my sister-in-law was introducing me to a friend of hers.  I reached out to shake her hand just as she said “Please meet my sister-in-law, Gen…she’s a photographer!”  And just like that, I paused to figure out how this had all happened.  As the word lingered in the air…hovering above our heads…I found myself wondering how this could all be real.  How had I been blessed to turn my every day’s work into a life of creating?  How had I been so privileged as to be the one carrying around the essence of your memories in my camera?  How did I get chosen to capture that one moment and rescue it from getting away?

How did I become a photographer?

Well, the answer is simple really…because God wanted me to be a photographer.  He wanted me to write…He wanted me to take pictures…He wanted me to tell stories.

And I feel God in so much of what I do.  I feel Him in the people that I meet…in the moments that I witness…in the relationships that I build.  I feel God’s hand on the life that He wanted me to live.  A life that went from restless discontent to creative inspiration.

But it’s not to say that it’s a life that doesn’t come with its own set of challenges.  Like anything else…there are struggles…there are doubts…there are days that don’t look the way you imagined them.  And in those days, it’s often hard to see God.

When I’m fifteen weddings in and feeling completely exhausted.  When I’m on my sixth week of physiotherapy from the strain that my body has endured.  When it has rained for the third session in a row.  When this happens…it’s easy to forget that the life your living is – in fact – a treasured blessing.

It becomes so easy to forget…because so often, it’s too easy to see past the beauty of it all.

But sometimes it’s not.  Sometimes – in the most necessary of moments – God radiates through every square inch of what you’re creating and reminds you…that it’s all a gift.

Lisa and Mike’s maternity session was, hands down, that most beautiful of reminders…

As our frigid temperatures began to rise…as the most perfect light poured out from the heavens…as nature created the most sublime masterpiece…I was reminded.

As two people so dear to my heart laughed in the distance…as my incredible student fell in love with photography beside me…as the inspiration flooded within me…I was reminded.

I was reminded that this life takes courage.  This life takes guts.  This life takes great people and even greater love.  This life takes passion.  This life takes vision.  This life takes beauty beyond belief.  This life takes music.  This life takes light.  This life takes the greatest and most wondrous God.

Most of all, this life takes you…living it…breathing it…standing in the very midst of it…

Because only you…can see the gift in what God has given you.

Even the reminders…