As this pandemic lingers, however, and tightens its grip on our sense of normalcy for everyday living, I'm finding it more and more difficult to link the past with what my life is now. Caregiving just seems a lifetime away. I can't grasp onto it as well, can't allow it to inform my decisions and experiences like it did previously.
So, writing here is good because it forces me to retreat once again to a different time, in a different world. This, of course, as healing as it can sometimes be, will never match the benefit from instead, reaching to the future and the glorious things it can hold for us.
In essence, I've been made to realize that the past can inform us, but it's the future that truly inspires us. We must keep our eyes on that "city which has foundations, whose builder and maker is God". Hebrews 11:10.
As a matter of fact, I was memorizing Hebrews 11, the "faith chapter", before Dean's death two years ago. I had just about mastered it, when it happened. I have failed to review and revive my memories of that chapter until recently. Now, those verses about faith are a sweet balm for me. Keeping my faith intact, making it all I need to take with me to the Kingdom.
It's the only lesson worth learning on this sick planet. Instead of asking someone, "How are you?", we should be asking, "How's your faith?"
