The Yearbook

All the years flip through my mind like pages in a yearbook. Recalling, retelling, reminding. Moments of beauty. Moments of heartbreak. Moments that I wish I could just forsake. 

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Then, God picks up the book and looks inside with me. I hear Him speak as He points to pictures and tells Me what He sees, unraveling the mysteries. He tells the story so differently. For on the pages where I see failure, He sees how I went yet again from glory to glory, finding favor upon favor. 

And He laughs, my proud Daddy, as He looks through my album. He boasts of how I didn't give up on page 37! haha! 

He jokes about how much I've made Him laugh over the years. He says, "Oh darling, you are just so precious to Me and I am amazed how you have overcome your fears!" 

He pulls me closer as He flips yet again to the pages that have brought so much pain from my own sin. Oh, the regret I feel when I look at those pages. But He pulls out his red ink and stamps "forgiven" on all those places. 

"There's no need to return to these pages," He reminds me. "Recall them only to tell others of My forgiveness in your story." 

Oh, how kind He is as He flips through and sees, every place that I thought for sure He would yell at me. But His stamp keeps stamping the red ink of forgiveness until every page is filled with His obvious goodness! 

"Oh, Daddy, God!" I cry with much gratitude, "You have been so good to me, I don't even know how to thank you!"

"Oh, sweetheart, you don't understand. These pages are just as important to Me, for you have let Me into your life and I get to watch you walk out My perfect plan! Your life is My art work, My mosaic piece. These pictures mean so, so much to Me. 

"But look! There are empty pages still left to fill! This album is not finished! I have many more plans 'in the wings' for you still! So, let's keep going, together 'til the end, until every last page is filled and you come to your heavenly home in My kingdom!"