A Suitcase of Ebenezers

My dear friend and fellow writer, Jamie Miles, recently wrote a blog post titled, “Stairway to the Me I Forgot.” In her blog post, Jamie talks about finding items from her childhood in her family’s attic.

Jamie’s final question: “Have you cleaned out an attic lately? What did you find? Or re-find about yourself?”

This got me thinking…

Prior to my wedding earlier this year, my mom gave me a suitcase filled with items from my childhood. I haven’t opened it–yet. I would like to say that I forgot about it–and in some respects I did with all the wedding planning, but now that we’re settling into our home, I’ve walked by the suitcase several times and said, “Maybe later.”

• Later…
• Not now…
• Not a definite time in the future…
• But later.

Sometimes it’s hard to go back. We fear taking that stairway into those dark areas of our lives. Or we think about how tattered our lives are–like that old suitcase– and we just don’t want to go there–to the all-too-familiar, the things we prefer to escape:

• Depression.
• Addictions.
• Abuse.
• Hurts.
• Illness.
• Loss.

Difficult and sometimes downright painful. But in the corners of the attic and tucked into pockets of the suitcase are our Ebenezers–visual reminders that God was with us through the pain and continues to help us to this day (1 Samuel 7:12).

• Ebenezers.
• Reminders.
• Good times.
• Happy times.
• Times of laughter and childlike silliness.
• Times of peace and hope.

In the attic and in the suitcase, we might uncover pain. But we also uncover visual reminders of God’s love, His protection, and His sovereignty. Each has made us what we are today.

Even more, we now hold in our hands God’s reminder: He has helped us to this day.

I think I’ll pull out that suitcase now.

Come alongside…Do you resist going back? What Ebenezers can you identify through life’s pains?