Parable of the Film Emulsion

I'd like to share a gospel insight that I discovered as a result of photography a little over a year ago.

…have ye spiritually been born of God? Have ye received his image in your countenances? Have ye experienced this mighty change in your hearts? …can you look up, having the image of God engraven upon your countenances? (Alma 5:14,19)

How is it that we can have the image of God engraved upon our countenances?” Perhaps the parable of the film emulsion can help explain it.

Film emulsion is made of millions of light sensitive salts and crystals that react and change to light, and make photography possible. When the light sensitive emulsion of film is exposed to light coming through the camera lens, past the shutter, the image of whatever the camera was “looking at” is “engraved” on the film. The emulsion is extremely sensitive so the camera settings must be very precise to take a clean picture. So it is with us, if we look to Christ his light will shine through and engrave itself on our countenance. We have to be careful not to take our eyes off of Christ and the light of the gospel and “expose ourselves” to harmful influences. When we are looking for solutions to the stresses of life, where do we look? If we want Christ’s image in our countenance it’s not simply enough to look in his general direction. The lens must be adjusted and the focus set. It is easy to miss the mark and lose focus if we don’t give careful attention to our priorities. Even within the frame of the gospel, is Christ the center of our attention, focus, worship, and service? In a world of so much filth hopefully we are especially careful about the images and messages that appear in front of our lens. If we want to keep ourselves spiritually sensitive, we can’t afford to overexpose ourselves to worldly influences or underexpose ourselves to light of the gospel.