Image by David Osta from Pixabay
“I like the way the sun just gets so close to the mountains before it goes down and just gets into the west-facing windows – it just makes them like big windows into heaven!”
Mrs. Maggie Lee smiled at seven-year-old Amanda Ludlow talking with her big sister eleven-year-old Eleanor.
“Yep,” the older girl said. “Each one becomes a big panel of light that goes from gold to red and just colors the walls of the house so nicely and even the people who stand in the light.”
“Hey – that would look good for the next newspaper I'm putting out for Papa and Grandma – how about you give me your phone and stand in the light, Ellie, and then I'll give you the phone back, and you get a picture of me?”
This turned into a late afternoon family photo shoot, with the three little Trents next door coming to get involved and Amanda's siblings eight-year-old Edwina and six-year-old Grayson being let out of being grounded for a little while because of it.
“I finally got the orange hair I wanted!” blond five-year-old Lil' Robert said about his photo in the redder light.
“I really wanted my blond to go green, but, I'm out here and not grounded and definitely a blond having more fun, so, orange works for me too,” blond Grayson said about his picture.
Everyone got a gold shot and a red shot before the sun went over the Blue Ridge, and Sgt. Vincent Trent came over and took Col. H.F. and Mrs. Maggie Lee with all seven Ludlow grandchildren just at the red-gold turning point through all windows.
“See, when you know a real photographer – wow,” Amanda's oldest brother ten-year-old Andrew said.
“Forget about being a lawyer,” Amanda's older brother nine-year-old George said. “I gotta learn that first!”
“Frankly, Sergeant, I don't know why you are working in anybody's company, even as vice president – you have an eye that is unique,” Col. Lee said.
“I work so this doesn't have to be work,” Sgt. Trent said as he snapped his three little ones with their Ludlow friends on the back half of the turn. “My mother is a Jubilee-of-the-mountain, and they always say gifts are to be gifted, not enslaved.”
“Now that is indeed some old Jubilee-of-the-mountain wisdom that the Lees-of-the-mountain have picked up,” Col. Lee said, “and it is why no Lee-of-the-mountain musician has ever made a career of it.”
“It's like the girls were talking about panels of light – this is not to say that some people are so called to the arts that they can make a career of it without cheapening it – but even then, you see the same thing: the gift is still gifted, and the light of common grace floods the world in such a way that people must think, 'Over my head, I hear music in the air – there must be a God somewhere.' ”
“Indeed, the song of your people expresses what Psalm 19 also expresses so well -- the heavens declare the glory of God,” Col. Lee said, “and so does your photography. You have taught me something this evening, Sergeant, about life, even as Amanda and Eleanor have, and I thank you.”