In my garden, early spring is for preparation--digging up the ground, pulling weeds, adding compost, getting my beds ready for new growth. I never know what I will find when I begin digging. Sometimes it is a grub; sometimes a forgotten potato; once even an intact, amazingly pungent, very rotten egg--a gift from my compost.
In the same way, the seasons of our lives unearth memories.
Some are sweet, but others are painful and difficult--things we would rather
stay buried. How do we reclaim our memories? Recently, I ran across
the following from Fredrick Buechner:
The sad things that happened long ago will always remain
part of who we are, just as the glad and gracious things will too, but instead
of being a burden of guilt, recrimination, and regret that makes us constantly
stumble as we go, even the saddest things can become, once we have made peace
with them, a source of wisdom and strength for the journey that still lies
ahead. It is through memory that we are able to reclaim much of our lives that
we have long since written off, by finding that in everything that has happened
to us over the years God was offering us possibilities of new life and healing
which, though we may have missed them at the time, we can still choose, and be
brought to life by, and healed by, all these years later. (Telling
Secrets)
Making peace with sad and painful memories is hard digging
but often produces surprising possibilities for new growth--even years later.
In this Easter season, praying for Jesus' new life and
healing.
