The complete picture.

“Smile!” said the photographer to the neatly arranged family. It was Easter, and, with a great deal of thought and effort, everyone in the family looked picture-perfect. The patriarch’s heart was filled with pride and gratitude to have five generations represented, and soon the “pure moment of happiness,” as she liked to say, would be placed prominently in her gallery of living room photographs.

Like other state-occasion photographs, however, there’s the picture, and there’s the picture-behind-the-picture. While all were neatly arranged with smiles that Easter morning, one child was reeling from the late night conversation with her parents about her drinking, a son-in-law was distracted by his failing business, a couple tried to hide the fact that their marriage was falling apart, and another wondered why they even bother taking such photos when they’re not that close as a family.

The picture-behind-the-picture was as real as the one being taken, and, instead of choosing, they both need to be seen if the family is to be known and fully understood. Just like with you and me, there’s what a camera sees, and what it can’t. Even in Christianity, there’s the obvious joy of Easter, but there’s also the less obvious things that are just as much a part of.

There’s the sunrise of Easter morning, but the ground is still soaked from the storm on Friday.

The linens are draped over the place where the body once lay, but there are blood stains if you look closely.

There are shouts of excitement, but they’re mingled with the echoes of denial and betrayal.

There are embraces of solidarity, but also questions of who will be in charge.

There’s the knowledge that everything has changed, but also the fear that nothing has changed at all.

To fully understand Easter, we need to look not only at the pretty picture, but the tragedy as well, at the light of morning and darkness before. This full view does not diminish the story, but completes it. Just as the picture-behind-the-picture completes the family, seeing Easter in light of all that led up to it completes its meaning. To shout, “He is risen,” is one thing, but to see the entire story is to say, “He is risen, indeed.”