I’ve had a hard time doing the “normal” things this year. The traditional things we try to do each year.
As we drive down to a place we go every year, I wondered if it was really worth the effort.
Our area was ravaged by fires in 2010, and again in 2017. In the fall of 2017, I started taking the kids out to one of the areas hardest hit.
I felt like it was really important to show my kids how sometimes, things can seem absolutely, completely hopeless. That we will most likely have times in our lives where it just feels like we’ll never be the same again.
And in showing them the desolation, I could help them.
I wanted them to know that God has victory even then. And that He is a God who redeems. That he will never leave us broken-hearted and alone.
So each year, we have gone back. We’ve talked about how it felt that first year. And how it feels each year.
We point out the butterflies and birds.
We look for the bright wildflowers.
And this year, I really wondered if it would be worth it. Was it worth fitting something else into the craziness that has become 2020?
It was.
It wasn’t just the pictures I took. It wasn’t just noticing evidence of His great love and beauty.
It felt normal. I hadn’t realized how much I’d been craving normal.
So today, I ask you to make the memories. Do the mundane things that seem pointless and unrewarding. Keep the traditions. Take the pictures.
And maybe next year, in whatever 2021 looks like, we’ll have something redemptive to look back at. A reference point for how far we can go if we hold tight to that faith
Soul to Sole Living 