God Knows Our Ghosts

First dragons, now ghosts. On my walk this morning I was confronted with the two extremes of ghosts. One is angry and some what frightening. One is a friendly ghost and very welcoming. I suppose that in the ghost world, like our own, it takes all kinds.

Some neighborhood ghosts swing in the wind as they hang from the trees. Some are inflated by fans, so you can sometimes catch them sleeping in a heap on the ground. Others, like these, seem to always be in business, doing whatever it is ghosts do. Some are small and some, like this angry one, tower above all who might pass their way.

Those of us in this world often speak of the past in terms of our “ghosts”. We all have things that haunt us to some degree. Painful experiences. Poor decisions. Loss. Grief. William Faulkner writes, “The past is never dead. It isn’t even past.” Things have a tendency to stick with us. Our experiences, both good and bad, go into making us who we are. Some of those ghosts are like the one on the left. Others, like the one on the right. But ghosts they be.

Isaiah proclaims, “Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are mine.” Grace takes all that we are, all our experiences, and redeems us - ghosts and all. Our ghosts may go into making us who we are, but they do not have to determine who we are. We can allow grace to do that. I find it a comfort to think God knows all about our ghosts and claims us anyway. I find it a joy to think God can look past all the ghosts and see who we really are and calls us by name. I find hope in the thought that all of me - ghosts and all - has been redeemed by such grace.

Peace.