Things captured and things kept

If you followed my Seattle series, you saw quite a few photos of the city, Dot Island, Sucia, San Juan, and the various Sparrows. For those of you who would like to see even more, here are links to my facebook albums:

Seattle, Days 1-6

Dot Island, Sucia, and San Juan

Bellingham and Capitol Hill

There are also lots of other stories I could share, but I want to mention one in particular before I move on for good. Most readers of this blog know that our son Jacob lives with brain injury from a near-drowning accident in 1996. I wrote about our family’s journey — and some of the remarkable and beautiful things God did in the process — in Parting the Waters: Finding Beauty in Brokenness. Of course, in order to publish the book, I had to end the story somewhere. But life stories don’t end until a life ends (and often times, not even then). The ripples continue in and through Jacob’s life. And so does the healing. We still discover evidences of God’s power to keep and restore Jacob’s brain.  One of those discoveries happened while we were in the Northwest.

We were all piled in the car, returning to Seattle from Bellingham, when Grace turned to Jacob and said, “Hey, Jacob. Let’s see if we can name the books of the Bible.”

I perked up my ears. We’ve played lots of memory games with Jacob, but I don’t ever recall anyone trying this one.

“I’ll go first,” Grace said. “Genesis . . .”

He immediately followed with, “Exodus.”

“Leviticus,” she said.

“Numbers.”

I was already impressed. It got better.

“Deuteronomy.”

“Joshua.”

My mouth dropped open.

“Judges.”

“Ruth.”

“1 Samuel.”

Okay, so he lucked out and got the ‘seconds’ on Samuel, Kings, and Chronicles, but he nailed them all.

“Ezra,” she said.

“Nehemiah.”

I seriously could not believe my ears.

“Esther.”

I think he stumbled over Job but got Proverbs after Psalms. Once she hit the minor prophets, he was mostly lost, but who isn’t? His New Testament performance was similarly impressive.

Since the accident Jacob has consistently displayed a remarkable memory for music and lyrics. But I was totally unprepared for this level of retention fourteen years after his injury. He has not been drilled on this topic. It was simply knowledge preserved.

There’s much that medical science doesn’t know about the brain. There’s also a merciful God in heaven who is able to keep His children, and He promises that not one word spoken concerning them will fail, but all will be brought to pass. Tragedy strikes, and we buckle under the weight of grief, sorrow, or pain. But God is never surprised by anything that touches our lives. He is accomplishing plans formed long ago with perfect faithfulness.

Our experience with brain injury sometimes brings us in contact with others who find themselves on a similar path. I’ve asked you several times to pray for Claire and her family. Please continue. They still need it. Now I want to ask you to also pray for Madie Skinner, a fourteen-month-old local child who fell into a swimming pool and is currently at Children’s Medical Center in Dallas. There are some uncanny connections between Madie’s story and ours. I’ll share those with you in another post. For now, I’m asking you to intercede on behalf of these two precious little girls, created by the Lord for His pleasure and glory. The same God who carried our family through the waters and guarded Jacob’s life and faith is working out His plans for these wounded families. They are casting themselves on Him and finding Him faithful. But it’s a long, difficult road. Your prayers make a difference. Thank you.