Splashing through story frames

Three hundred and sixty five days ago I was tired. Tired of being sick and sad. Wary of what 2012 held. So I wrote a post to try to make sense of 2011, to try to understand God's goodness in the face of suffering.

Like it often does, click click clicking these computer keys helped me arrive at important truths. It reminded me that God's goodness sometimes pierces like nails drilling flesh onto the wood of a cross. It assured me that God's mercy is sometimes severe, but has the power to make a heart alive.  (Click here to read the post, which is the prequel to this post).

I re-read last year's New Year reflection earlier this week with plans to write a follow-up. Blog posts can act as story frames, and I wanted to record and remember the glorious turn my story took between January 3, 2012 and January 3, 2013. I wanted to chronicle the ways God has showed me his goodness this year. I wanted to celebrate the ways he's used suffering to make me more fully human. I wanted to remember all the times I splashed in the water.

So I charged my computer, preparing to write.

And then, my brother showed me this video he'd filmed without my knowledge on December 31st, the last day of 2012.

And it acted as the best possible story frame to capture the transformative work of a good God in a body that was so sick and a soul that was so tired.

Because, sometimes, splashing in the water looks like tilting your head back and laughing at a sky full of snow.

Isn't it grand what God has done?!

"Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life." Psalm 23:6

© by scj