Silver Tables
Cloud Silver Lining
When people have been married 25 years, they celebrate their Silver Anniversary. They’ve been together for 25 years (maybe more, but definitely 25!).
I am not about to announce that I’ve had a secret husband for 25 years, but I am marking a Silver Anniversary of sorts. The anniversary of what was one of the hardest days of my life.
25 years ago, I lost my hearing.
Silver Anniversary of sorts.
As the proverb has it, ‘every cloud has a silver lining.’
Hearing Loss certainly brings clouds, but what have been/are my silver linings?
I wrote about many of them in Still Emily.
God, family, medical teams, friends, kindness of strangers….
I’ve recently been struck by Psalm 23:5a:
‘You prepare a table before me…’
As I look back over the last 25 years, there have been many ‘tables’ in front of me.
‘Initial terror at silence’ table.
‘Learning to lipread’ table.
‘Realisation that I can’t lipread everyone’ table.
‘Lipreading errors’ table.
‘Wishing I could understand’ table.
‘People speaking clearly for me’ table.
‘People explaining what I missed (often after laughing together over my mistake!)’ table.
You prepare a table before me…
Or, You prepare a table in my presence…
All my tables, all the things on my tables, have been and will be prepared by God.
I realise I need to be careful saying that, because some of our tables – including mine – hold hard things.
But, what if we chose to look at those tables as prepared by God?
Silver Tables.
Every table has a silver lining....
God knows the end from the beginning.
He knows what our lives hold.
He knows what our tables are laden down with.
He knows what our tables are empty of.
The verse goes on to say ‘…in the presence of my enemies.’
He prepares our tables in both the ‘presence of our enemies’ – the things that seem/are against us – and in the presence of ourselves.
Our enemies don’t squash us out. They may make life harder, but we are still there.
Deafness doesn’t stop me being me.
Whatever you are facing doesn’t stop you being you.
Silver Tables.
Seen by God.
Known by God.
‘You have searched me, Lord, and you know me.’
Psalm 139:1
That’s why I called my memoir ‘Still Emily’.
Still me.
Still you.
You prepare a silver table in my presence…