Sometimes in order to move forward we have to move backward. We have to review what has been in order to get to what is and what will be. This is particularly important in this season of Advent as we are called to prepare for a “new thing.” Isaiah 43:18 urges us to “Cease to dwell on days gone by and to brood over past history. Here and now I will do a new thing; this moment it will break from the bud. Can you not perceive it.” Yet, in order to perceive that new thing and eventually to receive it, Isaiah 42:20 reminds us that we “have seen much, but remembered little…our ears are wide open but nothing is heard.” It seems to me this morning that it is difficult to get hold of the present moment and the “not yet” if we can’t remember what we’ve already seen and failed to remember—those yesterdays. If you’ve seen much and don’t remember, how can you possibly get hold of what is going to happen?
So it is that I look back and try to remember the year that has gone by so quickly. In January and February we traveled across this land “made for you and me.” We had a wonderful visit with friends and relatives all along the way, going and coming. We visited with Cherie’s mother in California near her 94th birthday. It was a great adventure: snow in Flagstaff, our grandchildren preparing a cake and singing “Happy Birthday” to their grandad, my granddaughter playing “Happy Birthday” just for me on the piano, a sunset in Pipe Organ National Monument, and so much more.
Shortly after our arrival home we received word that Cherie’s mother had suffered a stroke. Off she flew to California where she spent the next month or so at her mother’s side to the end. While she was there our second great granddaughter was born with a heart issue requiring days of waiting and hoping. She made it through with flying colors!
Another trip took us to England for our granddaughter Katie’s “second wedding” to the same guy she married here in the USA in October 2017. We were delighted to have my brother and his wife travel with us for that event and be with us on a cruise of the Baltic Sea. What a trip!
August came with a shock. Cherie suffered a mini-stroke. Our trip west was canceled. She also lost her niece from a sudden illness shortly thereafter. A brief trip to Maine in October was therapeutic, but Cherie’s arthritic knee was creating mobility problems. She will have a knee replacement this week.
Life tumbles in with all it ups and downs for all of us. We must recall those ups and downs in order to press on to the new thing. The Apostle Paul didn’t reckon that he had gotten hold of that new thing yet, and says, “All I can say is this: forgetting what is behind me, and reaching out for that which lies ahead, I press on towards the goal…”—toward the “new things” of this Advent time—the promise of a new song to sing, a new dance to dance, a new life to live.
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| Our second "Great" Grandaughter is doing GREAT! |
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