There is no place more terrifying to a parent than a hospital… especially when you have to visit the emergency room. And that is exactly where we found ourselves this past Friday evening.
Most of you know the stats, but for those of you just joining us, I have five children (yes… five!); four boys and a girl. Brandon (28), Justin (25), Colin (16), Cameron (14), and Audra (7).
Cameron is our avid sports nut, a crown prince of sarcasm, and overall a very bright and intelligent young man (in spite of my DNA). He has been known to pull some pretty funny stunts. This past Friday afternoon was no stunt, alas.
Long story short, Cameron got hit in the head with a piece of exercise equipment and we ended up taking him to the Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt here in the Nashville area. A few short months ago, he suffered a mild concussion from a fall during a basketball practice. That was scary to be sure, but nothing prepared us for this!
After the accident we obviously were trying to determine the extent of his injury. He had a nice big bump on the head, and he was complaining of nausea and extreme dizziness. Not to mention the mother of all headaches. He apparently never lost consciousness (which is good)… but when we asked him a series of questions, a major symptom came to the fore.
Dad: Who are you?
Cameron: Cameron
Dad: Who am I?
Cameron: My dad
Dad: Where are we?
Cameron: (blank look) I don’t know…
Yikes! Cameron could remember in great detail how the accident occurred. Horsing around at a friends house, where he accidentally pulled an exercise pull-up bar down on his head. But he could remember nothing before then. Nothing! He didn’t know his own middle name… how old is was, etc.
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But thankfully Cameron checked out fine. (BTW… the doctor who examined him was just a little larger than a hobbit and looked to be about 17! lol). These fine folks referred us to a sports concussion clinic for a followup and released us to go home.
It’s now Sunday evening, and Cameron’s memory is still jumbled. One thing the doctor said was that while it’s common to experience this type of memory loss, he did say that Cameron may always have a hole in his memory.
I honestly don’t know how to even begin to process that…
I do know that there are many things I’ve done that I would love to be able to erase. To wipe clean not only the slate of memory, but the slate of right and wrong that goes on our eternal ‘permanent record’. And as much as I try, my memory tends to be excellent in the area of my failings.
But as a Christ-follower and a firm believer in his grace and mercy, I know and trust his promise that he “…has removed our sins as far from us as the east is from the west.” Psalm 103:12 (NLT).
So God chooses to take my sins… my failures and fears, my fallen nature… to take them and cast them into an eternal hole in his memory!!
If you, God, kept records on wrongdoings,
who would stand a chance?
As it turns out, forgiveness is your habit,
and that’s why you’re worshiped.
Psalm 130:3-4 (MSG)
Today and everyday I will thank God for his habit of forgiveness…
GV