Pray. Pray? Pray! It is impossible to come up with one photo to carry the weight of an Advent reflection on the word #pray.

The reason is really quite simple. Every time I raise my camera and turn it toward creation is a prayer. It’s a prayer of wonder, a prayer of adoration, for sure.

It’s also a prayerful interaction between creatures, a communication, if you will, grounded in the common source that animates us. I mean that even if the other creature is a tree, or even a rock.

It’s a prayer of respect, and occasionally, it’s a prayer of some fear and trepidation, like when the other creature is a huge spider or a venomous snake. But I cannot not reach out to them with my camera. My own creatureliness demands it.

So…. which of my thousands of photos can bear the weight of it? Can begin to express this prayer about prayer? This one, because it is the central story of faith. Night must come before dawn, death before resurrection.

I’ll tell you the story of the photo another time. For now, hush! Be still. Pray.