In the wake of the terrible tornado that swept through Joplin Missouri, in May 2011, survivors found their possessions scattered as far as 70miles away. Next to the loss of life, the loss of memories seemed to be the toughest to take for many families. The destruction of family homes, loss of heirloom furniture, documents of historical significance, and family photographs – especially the family photographs - was difficult to bear.
Abi Allmandinger of Carthage was trying to find a way to help her distressed neighbors when she heard someone on the radio mention they had found a box of family photos. Allmandinger, a veteran cropper, had found her way to help. She set up a Facebook page where found family photos could be posted, and those who had lost photos could search for the one’s they’d lost. She has collected more than 5000 photos, and more than half have been claimed. The response of gratitude of the ones who have their memories returned has been overwhelming. The healing that happens when family photographs are returned goes beyond the reception of an image of a past birthday party, high school graduation, or 30th anniversary trip. It goes even beyond the memory of the event itself because what has been lost is now found.*
Tornadoes are not the only way family photos can be lost. They can be lost while still in the frame or photo album. A grown woman looks at a snapshot of herself as a happy child with a loving family. She remembers that day, and the subsequent divorce of her parents, and somehow that photo is lost to her. A man looks at the same photo, remembers all he destroyed when he shattered his family, and the photo is lost to him too. Our sin, or the sin of others, can leave a swath of destruction wider and more severe than any tornado, and can steal more of our past than any natural disaster. No cropper, even the most gifted, can make the photograph pretty and sweet, and sentimental again.
Maybe no one can. Not fully. Not this side of the Jordan. So much depends on our own willingness. But God can give us our past back if we are willing to accept it.
Joseph’s brothers hated him, discussed killing him, sold him as a slave and pretended he was dead. In an instant they took home and family away from him, seemingly forever. But one day they came, hat in hand, asking for grain. The story takes too many twists to recount here, but Joseph is able to reconcile with his brothers. He is able to fall on their necks in tears of gladness. The reason isn’t because he has accepted or forgotten their hatred. It is because God has given him grace.
Do not be afraid. Am I in God’s place? As for you, you meant evil against me but God meant it for good – in order to keep many people alive. (Genesis 50.20-21)
Joseph is reunited with his father, with his brothers because God’s grace gave him another way to perceive and interpret his past. God gave him his past back.
Joseph is able to forgive his brothers and recover his past because of God’s grace. Paul is able to forgive himself. Paul, back when he was Saul, and an up-and-comer with the Sanhedrin spearheaded the persecution against Christians. He brutalized and imprisoned mothers and fathers, hauling people out of their homes – and he never forgot it. But because of God’s grace he can look back on his past and see the path that brought him to God.
It is a trustworthy statement, deserving full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, among whom I am the worst of all. And yet, for this reason I found mercy, in order that in me as the worst, Jesus Christ might demonstrate his perfect patience as an example for those who would believe in Him for eternal life. (I Timothy 1.15-16).
The fuller passage (vv. 12-17) is richer in this awareness. So also are passages like Philippians 3.1-16, and II Corinthians 11.16-12.10 – Paul is clear – his past sins, his hardships, his deprivations, his weaknesses are all part of his identity and that identity is of a man redeemed by grace. He owns his past; it doesn’t own him, because Jesus has purchased it with blood and returned it to him.
How many photos would we like to have back? We know they can only truly be returned by grace, not by Facebook.
* “Most productive Use of Facebook,” in Mental Floss, September 2012, p.59.
