Midnight Pondering | Personal

(rooftop of The Messenger coffeehouse, Kansas City... there’s something to being able to overlook a whole city lit up under cover of night. Isn’t it beautiful?)

“Jesus didn’t need to be told, for he already knew what was in the heart of man”

I just read this in the book of John the other night before heading to bed, and it hit me like a stone.  

Before I say what’s on my heart, 

He knows.  

Before I know what’s on the heart of my peers, He knows.  

Before I find out what tomorrow holds, what it doesn’t hold that I beforehand expect (can I get a witness?), yes... in my travels, in work changes, the curves or bends in relationships... He knows.  

When I’m hurt by another’s weakness, when my own requires an apology: He knows, and He knew when I didn’t.

What makes my life complete, whole, SET APART from the “old” man I would be, the dead man I would be, the joyless, peace-less, purposeless, strength-less woman I would be: 

It’s that at all times, HE KNOWS.

It’s part of the grand adventure of the Christian life: that we’re not always in the know! Jesus knew; God knows.  Both when I do myself, and when I don’t. There’s no more hiding, when in the light of His greatness you realize there’s nothing to hide - it’s all already seen.  There’s less surprise at turns of events, because we know who’s at the helm and who has been standing there all along with sure footing.  There’s no more dismay when one is in question, because He knows already and wants to be sought!

Ah to live THIS life!! The life in which He — the Captain of our hearts — knows, and we love living that way.  Dependent, not always in the know... and in this, at rest and exceedingly happy.

He is sovereign, and He is indeed sufficient.

Sunday afternoon exploring is so much fun with this girl! We may be 14 years apart — but it’s such a gift 🎁 

<3 Anna

let’s chase the light together, shall we? | Family Portraits

mmhm, Oklahoma Island | Personal

foggy mornings.

pastel evenings.

shores.

seabirds. 🌊

My family's summer getaways usually contain lots of chatting and sightseeing and activity, but there are times of quiet “nothingness” when we just partake in the world around us together, silently. It’s been said that days can run ahead of your desired pace so quickly they resemble pearls slipping from a broken strand of necklace... one by one, following each other with no keeping them in tact. Here, mornings with a sister or brother and our warm mugs on the dock, my mind wandered to how days are really more like lake ripples. Created, one by one. They roll, they taper off into the great unknown, and no longer are they known for just themselves — but that ripple is not lost. The ripple caused another, becoming a wave that will interrupt any stagnancy threatening life to thrive underneath its surface. Looking out into that Great Unknown, full of majesty, full of movement and yet also tranquility...

you can see that one single ripple

now lost of itself (though far from lost),

owned a role that was lasting indeed. and so our days? our temporary but beautiful seasons? 

one at a time, they too, become a part of God’s grander sea 😍

<3 Anna

and now fuzzy phone photos will have to suffice...

Love documented:: synopsis of recent favorites | him+her edition

Oh my, here comes a photo overload.  What a whirlwind these have been, watching both newfound and dear childhood friends celebrate togetherness

🤍🤍🤍

so much so... indeed I haven’t gotten around to posting any of these prior to this.  Eeks.  There is far too much to be shared from an event or a piece in time of one’s life in just photos, and I’m finding this more and more as life eases along (the father walking his first child down the aisle; the young, giddy, teary-eyed fiancé who has found the one she loves; the devoted husband and wife of many years in marriage and life; all the tiny, most wonderful happenings that go uncaught by camera glass) - 

but it’s still worth it. 

It's still so worth it to retain, to capture, to remember.  

To take a glance at an image and recall all over, again and again, of how that moment, 

that embrace, 

even that chilly whisper of the wind, 

was etched in time and God’s heart alike. 📷 ✍️💕 

without further ado...

(shoutout to Olivia and Jennifer whom I shot a few of these weddings with)