Memories as signposts

This weekend our remaining child comes home from school, completing our family and officially starting our summer together. I can remember well when the kids were small and summer seemed to stretch on endlessly, punctuated by day camps and visits to grandparents. It was a welcome change from the school routines, which always seemed most burdensome at the end of the year - but I also knew we were entering the season that could tax parental creativity. What should we do today? What about tomorrow? Can I have a snack? I'm borrrrred! Now we're glad to get a few weeks when we're all together - and I know that soon enough, even that will be all too rare. 

Maybe those memories are what have us in a bit of a nostalgia trip, looking through old photos and retelling family stories. Jim has led me to some wonderful ideas of the Christian writer C.S. Lewis, who talks about good memories as signposts. They are there to point us toward God, Lewis says, the source of all good and all joy. We can mistake their role, trying to cling to old memories of a happier past. But that can lead us to idolatry, to trying to recreate what is past instead of trusting in the living God, who is leading us onward. When our good memories nourish us, they help us recognize God in our midst today. I'll be working hard to keep that focus in this season.