I took this photo through the window of a display case located along a sidewalk in our small town. The window displays photos from a gifted photographer. Each month throughout the year the photo in the window changes. The photo currently displayed is of Jan and me and our now departed canine buddy, Abby. 

The photo was snapped in the winter of 2016. Jan and I were walking into town on a snowy morning like we do each day. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw a man kneeling in the snow with a raised camera pointing in our direction as he snapped our image. His photo would spark the idea to create a book titled “A Year in Jacksonville.” He would include the following words in the introduction to the book:

“It all started in the winter of 2016 when I saw neighbors walking their dog in the snow in front of the historic Colvig House. On the spur-of-the-moment, I took a picture of the scene. That photograph inspired me to develop a series of images of Jacksonville, Oregon. The series has now been made into a book.”

A lot of life has transpired for all of us in the last seven years. For some of you, life has changed dramatically. There was a mixture of gain and loss. When Abby died it took two years before Ladybug came into our lives. She is the canine buddy who now walks on the end of our leash on the same street as the photo in the window. 

The older Jan and I become, the more we realize that someday one of us will walk down that familiar street without the company of the other. The images of our lives can change. Those who once walked with us will someday disappear, but the memories we made together will continue to walk with us down the avenues of our minds. Some of those images will be captured as treasures of a good life like the photo of Jan, me, and Abby on that morning walk in 2016.

Our daughter, Anna, knows the photographer and the creator of the book. As a gift, she purchased a print and had it framed. It now hangs on a wall in our dining room. Each time I see that framed image I am taken back to that snowy morning walk. I am reminded that no matter how much life changes it will always lead to a good and hope-filled future if Jesus walks with us.