Merciful Ignorance

Maybe I am strange, but every once in a while I go back through my social media profile and remind myself of where I have been and where I am now.

It occurred to me that some of my newer friends don't know anything about what has been going on in our lives so I scrolled through the past 10 months to see what others would see.  Reminiscing is truly a good practice to engage in from time to time because it gives us perspective.

When I went all the way back to last February and saw some of the things that I wrote it almost made me laugh because it seemed like we had been dealing with illness for so long at one month, 6 weeks, etc.  It seems a little ridiculous now to say "we've been here at the hospital for a whole month already".  If I had only know what the future would bring.  But thank you Jesus that I did NOT.

As a young person I always wanted to get a little peak into what my future might hold--what job would I have, who would I marry, where would I live, how many children would I have and what would they be like?  Our culture urges us to be always thinking two steps ahead of ourselves so we can keep up with the status quo or be somehow ever more successful than we are in the moment.

But God in His infinite wisdom has graciously given us merciful ignorance for a good reason.

The things we have to deal with in life are so hard and crushing OR so joyful and delightful that our souls could not take it if we had to "plan" for it.

This week Adam's car stopped working, we are finally getting the new floor put down in our basement and I told one of my kids in a conversation that this was "the year of bad things".  How could I have ever dealt with ANY of this year if I had known it was coming.

I truly believe that is one of the reasons God gave us grace.  Grace is what gets us through in the moment.  It is never early but also never late.  It comes just when we need it so that we depend on God to get us through both the good and the bad.

The other incredible reality that I saw when I perused my life over the past 10 months was the amazing support of friends and family.  I laughed and I cried as I reread many of the words of love and support given to me and my family through this very difficult year. There are no words of thanks that could ever be enough but I still say thank you.

None of us knows what tomorrow will bring.  Thank the Lord for merciful ignorance and great friends!!!