Our memories are funny things.  I’ve often noticed we hold on to and can recall the bad memories considerably easier than we do with the good.  I’m sure there is an physiological and psychological reason that people much smarter than I can explain.  But I’ve also found that bad and good memories rarely exist apart from each other.  It would also seem those two divisions are feeble at best to categorize all memories, but I’ll just go with those for now.

Today, June 19, 2018, marks four years of memories.  Some bad and some good.  And a good mixture of thousands of other feelings between those two.  But what happened 4 years ago today was predicated by some bad news.  News that would change the trajectory of our son, Cole’s health, when he was diagnosed with the rare, Perthes disease.  A diagnosis so difficult and seemingly “bad” that we for multiple moments lost our faith perspective and hope.  I guess diseases tend to do that to us.

But as I just took a moment to pause and reflect today, I thought it best to also write.  And to write about how good “good” really is when we best see and embrace the bad.  In fact, without the perspective of the bad, would we fully be able to see and understand the good?

Four years ago in some ways seems like just yesterday.  I can recall the emotions, the surroundings, the family, the fears, the faith and the prayers like it was yesterday.  But in other ways, four years seems like a lifetime ago.  Cole has come so far.  Truly beyond what we ever could have imagined, but most certainly what we prayed for that day in 2014.  

He is now 9 years old and rarely stops moving (which reminds me how amazing God was to give him the patience and stillness to stay in that spica cast for so long).  He does well in school from a natural curiosity and love for learning.  He loves all things outdoors, but especially fishing.  And he runs from sport to sport – competing in flag football, soccer and baseball again this year.

So, today, I’m grateful for the memories.  The bad and the good.  And really I hold them all in the perspective of what we are reminded of in James 1:17, that “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father…”

What a good promise, from a good God.  He loves to shower down the good even in the midst of living and fully experiencing the brokenness of this world.  And make no mistake… there is plenty of bad!  But it just makes the “good” of the Good News, look that much better.  Because we know the bad and the good point to the even greater reality… the best good is yet to come.  Our hope is in a King that is coming to fully restore His Kingdom.

But until that day, I’ve found it’s a good practice to pause, reflect and remember.

Oh, and one other thing I’ve noticed about memories is… Facebook clearly has a better memory than me.