The overnight snow flurries left a ragged frozen blanket
tossed on the grass and playhouse. It’s melting fast. The wool knit gloves are
great for warmth, but not much use when playing in slushy ice.
Suddenly I remembered. Aren’t there some snow gloves,
children’s sizes, still lurking in the trunk under the stairs? How long have
they been there? Twenty years? Are they still there?
Turns out they are comically too big for a four- and six-year-old,
but worn anyway!
A big house offers space to squirrel away treasures and
trash, half-remembered or completely forgotten. A long life is the same, I am
discovering! Things present themselves from my memory bank, things significant
and things trivial. They come as randomly as my memories about the snow gear
under the stairs.
I love the way God assures us that when we have confessed
and repented of sins, he forgets them. He filters them out of his memory bank
and doesn’t use our failings to remind us of our sinfulness. I pray for those
whose memories haunt and traumatise them, and ask God to heal and bless those
tortured by negative memories. May he drop a filter of love which releases the
grip of guilty or victimised memory.
He has given us the helmet of salvation to protect our
minds, and the shield of faith to extinguish all the flaming darts of the
enemy. With his help, we can learn to use these protections.
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