It’s so easy to take ourselves too seriously. I was doing a thought experiment today in the shower (a fertile time for my imagination). I was thinking about how we will all be so easily forgotten. First I thought about people in history. How many names are even remembered, let alone remembered with any attached details, I wondered? Well, just off of the top of my head, these are the people I remember from the 16th century (not the names I would recognize, just the names that immediately come to mind and whom I am positive lived during some part of the 16th century):\par
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John Calvin, Martin Luther, Zwingli, Queen Elizabeth I, King Henry VIII, John Knox, Bloody Mary, Mary Queen of Scots
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Eight people. Some people obviously would remember many more than that. I don’t have a particularly good memory.\par
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At the US Census Bureau site I found historical estimates of world population from 10,000 BC to the present. In the year 1500 AD, the lower estimate is 425,000,000 people. 8 people, as a percentage of 425 million is: 1.88235E-06 – that is\’c3\’82\’c2\~0.00000188235%.So, in other words, the number of people’s who’s names I even remember as a percentage of the population of the 1500s is microscopic – beyond microscopic, really. And when you remember that those were the REALLY BIG movers and shakers within my own particular cultural and religious heritage – well – it convinces me that my chance of being remembered in 400 years is absolutely nil.\par
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Here’s another thought. I had sixteen great-great-grandparents. Of those sixteen, I only remeber the names of\’c3\’82\’c2\~5 of them – not because they did anything grand, but just because those are the five my own grandmother was most interested and knew the most about. One great-great-grandfather was a bit of a lay-about, one great-great-grandmother’s mother died in childbirth and was raised on an Indian reservation for part of her youth, one great-great-grandfather homesteaded, and his wife came from a family that might have had money.The other great-great-grandfather is notable only because\’c3\’82\’c2\~nobody really knows where he came from and\’c3\’82\’c2\~the Mormons won’t talk.\’c3\’82\’c2\~There you have it, that’s what I know about the\’c3\’82\’c2\~5/16ths of my great-great-grandparents whose names I even remember. As\’c3\’82\’c2\~a mother, I know I tend to think of my legacy\’c3\’82\’c2\~to the world being my\’c3\’82\’c2\~descendants – and that’s very true. But there’s a 75% chance that my great-great-grandchildren\’c3\’82\’c2\~won’t even remember my name, let alone remember anything distinctive about me.\par
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So, when I’m tempted to get worked up about – well, anything -\’c3\’82\’c2\~ I’ll try to remember that – in the vastness of history most everything is irrelevant. In the providence of God, of course, everything has it’s proper place – but it’s not a big place – definitely not worth much wringing of hands.\par
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Wow. That really puts things in perspective. Doesn’t it?
Amen! Well said, Elly!
Elly- \par
I was just thinking of something else as I reread that last sentence. Not only are our problems “irrelevant” when it comes to the big picture in the course of history, but just think about how irrelevant they become even to us, in a matter of years. I had my first miscarrige nearly three years ago- I thought that I would never get over the pain, and then when I had the second one…. words can’t express how I felt. Now, I have the most wonderful daughter, more then I could have ever asked for. All of those words of “ecouragement” that I didn’t want to hear, or just made things worse, I can look back on now and realize their truth. “You’ll feel better once you have a baby in your arms” , ” It was probably meant to be”. Now I accept that. I rarely think of the miscarriges now, and when I do, my heart is no longer broken. “To everthing there is a season”- whatever it is that you are going through now, it won’t always be that way. You’ll get through it one way or another. Like you said, “definitely not worth much wringing of hands.”
Good point, Amy – that’s something I think about regarding a much smaller problem – housekeeping chores that don’t get done one day. I think – in 20 years, when I look back on my youth, will I remember that the refrigerator didn’t get wiped down today?
Thanks for sharing your thoughts on grief – I didn’t know you’d had miscarriages. 