It didn’t matter how hard I tried to forget — the dates were seared in my memory. I can’t remember what I had for dinner last night, but I could remember with shocking clarity what took place over a wintry weekend eight years ago.  

I guess that’s the thing with pain. It can embed itself right into you. Pain isn’t something you can just slip off like the straps of a backpack. Pain can feel more like it’s been sewn into your very skin.  

Each winter, I brace myself for a specific weekend. The holidays help mark it for me, and I think that’s why it’s so easy to remember and so hard to forget.  

Maybe you have a date like this too. Maybe for you it’s the day of the diagnosis or the betrayal. You can fill in the blank. But it can seem like no matter how hard you try to forget, each year the date comes around again, and you’re reminded.  

I hated this weekend on the calendar. Every year I wanted to skip it, move past it, or sleep my way through it.  

But this year, something changed.  

I hadn’t talked about the looming date with anyone except Jesus. I knew it was coming (I always knew it was coming), and I had spent time in prayer throughout the weeks leading up to it, asking God to help me move through it. I made a decision to stay busy that weekend, thinking I could maybe keep myself distracted.  

It was fine enough. The distractions felt bearable.  

And then God intervened in a way I’ll never forget. The weekend concluded with going out for dinner with my boyfriend and parents. And on the way to the restaurant, the man I love more than anything in the world told me something: he had gone to my parents earlier that day and asked for their blessing to marry me.  

He could’ve chosen any date on the calendar for that conversation. Unbeknownst to him, my boyfriend (now fiancé) chose to ask for a blessing on the date I’d always despised.  

At that very moment, the date I had hated for eight years was instantly rewritten. It didn’t erase all of the pain, but God was rewriting a much better story. It was no longer my past darkness that owned that weekend on the calendar. Now that date proclaimed the goodness God has in store for my future.   

The prophet Isaiah exclaims these beautiful words from God in Scripture:  

“Forget the former things; 
do not dwell on the past. 
See, I am doing a new thing! 
Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? 
I am making a way in the wilderness 
and streams in the wasteland.” 
Isaiah 43:18-19 NIV 

And we can’t forget the promise of Jesus in the very last book of the Bible. It’s one of my favourite verses: 

He who was seated on the throne said, “I am making everything new!” Then he said, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.” 
Revelation 21:5 NIV 

God is making all things new. We don’t have to wait until eternity to see the newness God brings. There are things in your life, right now, that God is in the process of redeeming. There are dates on the calendar that God wants to rewrite. There are better stories you are going to get to tell. 

God makes all things new. The promise in Scripture isn’t just some things. The promise is all things. The promise is everything.  

Our God is a God of resurrection and redemption and making every single thing new. Even that date on the calendar you’ve been dreading. 

Next year, that winter weekend will be marked with a brand new, beautiful memory: the man I love asking for a blessing to marry me. I never could have fathomed it. 

God is making all things new… all things. Even what you never thought He could. 

 

Writter by Aliza Olson and originally featured on (in)courage, a DaySpring community. Looking for more seasonal inspiration?  Explore our thoughtfully curated resources for Advent and Christmas, and find more encouraging articles at DaySpring.com.