Searching for Normal

     When I tossed in laundry recently I remembered humorist Erma Bombeck saying that the only place you find “normal” is a setting on the dryer. That’s surely been true for us the past few years. A daughter miscarried. A granddaughter died after a seizure. I fractured a bone in my foot. A daughter and I stared cancer in the face. Three other members in my extended family fought cancer. Then recently, Duane’s sister and mother died from a violent car crash.
     Grief upon grief.
     Bombeck is correct that it’s more normal for stuff to go wrong than right. Beauty withers, health deteriorates, things fall apart. I think it’s because everything is broken through our alienation from God, who established how the world is meant to work. He has given us this innate sense that life isn’t supposed to be the way it is. We want things to go right, for justice to prevail, for the good guys to win. These desires are echoes of the Garden of Eden, where brokenness didn’t exist. Not until God ushers in his second Eden will we experience fully the peace, justice, and beauty we long for.
     In the meantime (which can get pretty mean), we sometimes slog through days that fall way short of the good things God intended. I ache from our recent losses, but not without hope. A new world is coming when all will be made right. And during my grieving, your kindness toward me has given me Echoes of Eden. Thank you.