Developing Negatives

Remember the days before digital cameras and smartphone pictures? We used to buy film and then take the pictures to a lab to develop them before we could see them.

I loved taking pictures as a kid, so I joined my school’s photography club when I got into high school. I wasn’t great at the art of taking good pictures, but I loved the science behind developing them.

We had a darkroom in our high school, and any photography club member had access to it. So I’d use the school’s camera to take pictures, then take the film into the lab to develop them myself. I loved doing that part.

You might even be familiar with the process. First, we’d develop the negatives in sodium and potassium baths. Once done, you could look at the image, but it was dark, backwards, and appropriately called a “negative.”

Then we’d use a light projector to shine through the negative onto photographic paper. Once that exposed paper went through a series of three chemical baths, the image would be clear and positive.

Thinking back on that process reminds me of the process God took me through during that same time of my life.

Most of what I experienced during those years looked negative at the time. It wasn’t until the light of Jesus shined on and through me a couple of years later that those experiences took on clarity and recognizable positivity. Today, I’m thankful for those dark years…my darkroom years.

That’s what God wants to do with the difficulties, adversity, and injustices in our lives. We have all experienced negativity. People have mistreated us, passed over us, or taken advantage of us. Sometimes it’s just an onslaught of very difficult circumstances—health, financial, relational. God wants to take all those negatives, shine the light of Jesus through them, and turn them into positives.

He can, and He will! That is, if you respond well to those things and honor Him in the middle of it…which is allowing His light to shine through our negatives.

“Therefore let those who suffer according to God’s will entrust their souls to a faithful Creator while doing good” (1 Peter 4:19).

When you shine the light of God through your negative circumstances, He can turn your pain into a beautiful picture. He develops your character through it. He makes you stronger. And then He uses your pain to point people to Him.