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31 Days of Coming to Grips with My Age ~ Day 22: Re-membering to Restore

October 22, 2012 By Sandra Heska King

 

I slide into the polished pew next to D and sink into the history of this place, built over a hundred years ago, now restored. I’m immersed in a warm blend of pink and blue and green and gold, laced with intricate stenciling. A glass kaleidoscope rises on my right. Jesus and the children laugh and play in oils on the left wall. I gaze up at the blue dome above my head.

Sometimes I wish we’d married here where his family worshipped instead of in my hometown, where none of my family did.

Pastor talks about the windows–some stained, some painted–that represent scenes in the life of Jesus. Most are memorialized with names of people who poured themselves out in the past, invested in the future. I doubt they could imagine how far the seeds of their dreams would carry, that we would worship and remember in this sanctuary still 100 years later.

The title of the sermon today is “Remembering,” part of his series on the care and feeding of our souls.

He talks about journaling as a tool for remembering, where we can plant our own seeds of restoration.

He quotes C.S. Lewis, “Whenever you are fed up with life, start writing: ink is the great cure for all human ills, as I have found out long ago.” 

And he tells us about Hettie, how when life got challenging, he encouraged her to keep a journal. So for twenty years, she faithfully recorded prayers and answers to prayers. Her family said that was one of her most important legacies, one of their prize possessions, these written words from a woman of prayer, stories of God alive and at work.

Later as I clean out a cluttered room, I find my mom’s letter, long forgotten, tucked inside a folder–four pages written thirteen years ago on Hummel stationery in her own script. She chats about junk mail and papers piling up, beating my dad at a game of countdown, how she thinks I might like to become a court recorder, how she still has her old IBM magnetic card system and a second computer I could have (guaranteed Y2K safe), about the possibility of a casino being built in their backyard, about needing to have her Mediport removed and concerns about all the other tests the doctor would try to talk her into and that she would do her best to avoid.

It’s a window of light into a piece of her life, made more precious by the writing of her hand. She could have shared it all in a phone call, spoken words soon forgotten. But now in these pages I gather seeds of remembrance.

Mom kept folders for each of us, filled with printed emails and jokes and pictures. I wonder how much of this helped her remember. I treasure these for the memories they grow far above the dolls she collected or the coins she bought as future investments.

I ponder how it’s in the re-membering that we restore our souls and in the writing that we restore souls.

How if we re-cord as we remember, we re-member from the record. And how our stories, the stories of what God has done, can bleed into the stories of others.

These words we scribble embraced in leather or silver spiral bound, these words that we tap our on our screens and press out into the cloud, they’re windows into our own lives, our hearts. They’re windows for generations to peer into the past.

They’re words of re-membering for restoration, a broadcast of His wonders, an investment in the future.

Indeed, I’ve kept alert to GOD’s ways; I haven’t taken God for granted. Every day I review the ways he works, I try not to miss a trick. I feel put back together, and I’m watching my step. God rewrote the text of my life when I opened the book of my heart to his eyes. ~2 Samuel 22:22-24 (MSG)

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Filed Under: 31 days 2012, stories and reflections

Comments

  1. Diana Trautwein says

    October 23, 2012 at 1:53 am

    Oh how I hope you are right! that’s my primary reason for blogging at all – and the loveliest bonus of that has been finding this living, breathing, loving community out here. Thanks for this, Sandy.

    • Sandra says

      October 23, 2012 at 11:45 am

      Me, too, Diana. Me, too. Praying for you today.

  2. Martha Orlando says

    October 23, 2012 at 8:35 am

    Just beautiful . . .

    • Sandra says

      October 23, 2012 at 11:45 am

      Thanks, Martha. Grateful for your encouragement.

  3. Nancy Franson says

    October 23, 2012 at 10:04 am

    I see God doing deep soul work in you in this season of cleaning out and simplifying. You have found rich treasure written in your mother’s hand.

    Y2K safe computer–what a crack up!

    • Sandra says

      October 23, 2012 at 11:48 am

      She did not understand why I didn’t want it!

      And thank you for that, Nancy. I’m so tired of the superficial…

  4. Stefanie Brown (@stefanieybrown) says

    October 23, 2012 at 10:07 am

    Beautiful post. I LOVE the C.S. Lewis quote you cited. Great!

    • Sandra says

      October 23, 2012 at 11:49 am

      I know. I’d never heard that quote before and had to go tracking it down.

  5. Lorretta says

    October 23, 2012 at 10:59 am

    I am so encouraged by this post…legacy is a big theme of my life. Thanks Sandy.

    • Sandra says

      October 23, 2012 at 11:51 am

      Thanks so much, Lorretta. I needed to hear that today because I’ve suddenly been feeling that all these days, trying to keep up with a 31-day topic, have been, well…superficial in light of so many pressing needs. I think we never know what seeds we might sow for the future–what of our words God might use to open something deep in one of our children or grandchildren or another generation …

  6. Cecilia Marie Pulliam says

    October 23, 2012 at 10:22 pm

    Sandy, as always, beautiful photos and words. I love the C.S. Lewis quote. And, therapists have been using the same advice for years. Words help sort out emotions, re-align ideas and help heal. In cases like your Mom’s letter, they also bridge the gap between then and now, as you so beautifully stated. An endearing legacy, indeed. My family treasures my Grandmother’s story of leaving Missouri in a Model A with five kids and all their possessions in the 1920’s and heading out west for a better future. God bless you for sharing your stories, and faith.

    • Sandra says

      October 24, 2012 at 9:38 am

      Oh, I LOVE that story. There’s a story of my husband’s grandmother leaving Sweden when she was just a young thing because she was living with her aunt who ran a house of ill repute or something…I need to get the real facts on that from my SIL…

      • Cecilia Marie Pulliam says

        October 24, 2012 at 9:51 pm

        Sandy, I’d love to hear that story when you get all the facts. Sounds very interesting!

  7. Laura says

    October 24, 2012 at 12:40 pm

    What a precious gift your mother has left for you. I more ways than one. This is a lovely, lovely post, Sandy. Leaving me with that bittersweet of the sehnsucht. Love you.

  8. suzannah | the smitten word says

    October 25, 2012 at 12:25 am

    i love that lewis quote. there is such power in remembering and story sharing. restoration indeed.

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