I find it fascinating how different people remember or don’t remember their early years. My siblings, for example, recite in detail events from when we were young. I just sit there clueless, not believing that I could have been such a mischievous soul!
There are a couple of memories that I do have and a few years ago one of those memories landed me on a Tennessee hillside just outside of Nashville. I was in Nashville -- Madison to be more precise -- for my sister’s wedding. And I had asked my mother and father to take me to the home where I was born and spent my first two years. I wanted to see the pond and the creek behind the house. They had been forever held with fondness in my memory.
I remembered always wanting to go down to the pond. Our pet ducks swam there. My cousin Tom fished there. It was a multi-daily destination. And it was always an adventure. For between the house and the pond was a large creek that had to be crossed. For a 16-month old, it might as well have been fording the Kaw.
“There it is” my dad announced as we walked behind a small brick house. Sure enough, it didn’t disappoint me. Ducks. Fishing spots. It was my pond all right.
“But dad, where’s the creek?” I asked.
“Oh the creek,” he chuckled. “You mean this little trickle of water?”
Not far from us a trickle of water indeed cascaded down the hillside to the pond. At it’s widest point it might have been three inches across, at its deepest point, an inch and a half.
“But it was so big,” I protested. “So scary.”
“I remember,” he replied. “Getting you across it was always a big event but I have to tell you, if anything, it’s grown.”
It was odd. How something so significant could become so insignificant. I just smiled and laughed.
I think God keeps memories like that for us for times like these. It’s His way of saying don’t worry about challenges that seem too big or overwhelming. Just grow in me. And as you grow those challenges will seem smaller and smaller. Roaring creeks will become trickling streams. Heavy burdens will seem light. My grace, sufficient.
Oh Lord, grant us the hope and peace of such memories in these times of storm.