I must admit, I have never been one to go gaga over baby pictures. They are certainly cute to look at and occasionally there is a hilarious facial expression that gives everyone a good laugh, but I don’t get giddy over them like a lot of women I know do. Recently though, I have gained a new appreciation for what they are.

Baby pictures are a record of who we were at birth. They are a documentation of our very beginning. For all of our life, we can look back at them and say, “That is who I was when I was born. That’s what I looked like!”

We can look at them and see how, from the very beginning, we shared features with both of our parents. Personally, I seldom have any idea which parent’s eyes or nose a baby has, but others seem to be able to identify it quickly.

Looking at baby pictures also gives us a chance to reminisce. It is a fond trip down memory lane for parents as they slowly look at one picture after the next. Memories of milestone moments in their child’s growth are remembered. We often look at our own baby pictures as well as a way to fondly remember our parents and how loving and caring to us they were when we were still too small to care for ourselves.

Jesus taught that to see the Kingdom of Heaven, we must be born again. This second birth brings about new life and a new beginning in Christ. I wonder if you have taken time lately to look back upon your spiritual baby pictures?

If we broke out the old photo album (or Facebook photo album) and began looking at the pictures of us when we were still newly Christians, still babies in the faith, what would we see? We would see our younger selves still struggling to learn to walk in our faith. We would see ourselves taking scary first steps. We might even take notice to the loving arms of our Heavenly Father reaching down to give us stability, always ready to catch us when we fall.

We would begin to take notice of the characteristics we shared with our Heavenly Father from the time we were reborn. It may have been tough to discern at the time, but as we have grown in our faith, we can now see them more and more clearly. We share our eyes with our Father. We see the world more and more as He does as we have grown. We share our ears with Him as well. We have become quicker and quicker to listen.

We would hopefully marvel at how God made who we were then, grow into who we are today. We would be humbled in seeing how our Father taught us and guided us into being spiritually mature. How we transformed from being mere infants in Christ to fulling our role as servants of the God Most High and being His ambassadors and representatives on earth.

Take some time today and reflect back on your spiritual baby pictures. There is still much for all of us to learn and grow but we need to balance that humbling thought by periodically reflecting, with a heart full of gratitude, on how far God has already brought us. Be blessed today as you reminisce with your Heavenly Father reflecting back on how He has loving cared for you over the years.