Sweet Sara passed on from a life of pain and confinement to one of pure joy and freedom late Saturday evening. (Read my tribute and those of many others here.)

In February Sara left a comment on one of my first Camera Phone Friday posts, telling how she always followed Twitter photo links and how much she enjoyed the view into people’s lives, worlds, and hearts. By the end of our animated follow-up email conversation, she had installed Instagram on her iPad and was searching for friends to follow. In Sara’s words:

I totally think people look at twitter all wrong. they make fun of people posting all the little mundane details of their life, but I think it’s making people stop and really *look* at their life. I rarely miss big things as much as the little things when I look back. keep taking your pictures! 🙂 ~Sara, 2/2011

When I first heard that Sara didn’t have much time left with us here, I took down a photo from our instagallery and tucked it into a card to mail. That blank spot has reminded me of her these past two weeks. This morning I’ve printed a new batch of photos to update our display; the ones coming down are going into a photo album, two per 4″ x 6″ slot.

Sara had already modeled for me the choice of joy in hard circumstances. Now I think of her when I click the shutter, upload a photo to Instagram, or post a Camera Phone Friday. Maybe, just maybe, those images that we use to capture our families’ memories are blessing others, too.

Think about it.