After: The End of Ignorance (a five minute friday)

My Five Minute Friday on: After


Everything begins with a before — a blissful unawareness. Ignorant anticipation.

I couldn't understand the intense pain or the incredible joy of having a baby —

Or the depth of sorrow receiving the phone call that my mother-in-law had passed away in the night —

until it happened to me.

There is this time before the diagnosis — or the disclosure — or the dreaded phone call, when all seems status quo and routine.

But then a moment. A decision. A consequence. And it all changes.

The innocence of before snatched away by knowing.

And there are times I want to go back to before because the pain is too fierce, the disappointment too strong.

But there are equally afters, like having my kids, I would never trade — could never imagine going back to before.

I haven't always seen beauty in innocence.

Childhood wounds made me believe that not knowing hurts more. I spent many years thinking knowledge would have saved me — from things I now regret.

Today I see the innocence in my own children and I want to bottle it up and store it for them because there are things I wish they didn't have to see. Things I wish they didn't have to feel. Because they hurt.

But after is unavoidable and it's necessary.

And after, I have found — is where God hangs out and carries you into tomorrow.


Linking today with Lisa-Jo…