Photo and Commentary ©2024 by Robert Howson
Tuesday, July 30, 2024
It was a pleasant enough picture alright, but the file on it was lost. The qualities that made it a good picture were still intact: good light, agreeable background, sharp focus on the subject, but lost. I had written the blog entry some time before and had filed it, along with item number and source information, so felt confident it was ready to go. But things happened, blunders that erased what had been written along with backup information. The Gray Flycatcher was still perched on the top of the sage but the words had vanished.
This type of thing has happened before, but in the previous incidents I had been able to recall the gist of the blog and rewrite acceptable copy. But this time I drew a complete blank. I looked back at the picture a number of times, hoping this would jog the memory into action, but such efforts were futile. As a result, I am now writing an entry on memory and frustrations that accompany it. But it’s not all bad news, and that’s what I’d like to focus on.
The story is told of a parishioner who came to his priest and informed him he had had direct communication with God. The priest, not wanting to appear gullible or insensitive, responded that the church took such encounters very seriously and before accepting such as valid, required some sort of authentication. He informed the confidant that he personally had committed a sin and had confessed it only to God. Since he and God were the only ones in the know, he should ask God the next time he talked with Him what that particular sin was.
Upon their next meeting the priest asked the parishioner somewhat skeptically if God had revealed to him the information requested. There was a brief pause, after which the parishioner responded, “God said He forgot.” Isn’t that great news? (Hebrews 10:17)