A zebra with itchy underpants.

Home videos are the best, aren't they? Thanks to my mother's willingness to let her prepubescent daughters play with her digital Kodak camera, we have lots of them. Our recording genres would range from cooking shows, to crime and mystery sagas that included poisoned meatloaf and an old woman's stolen makeup compact.

One of my favorites to watch, however, is the adventures of Survivor Madeline in the wilderness of the woods behind our house. Madeline, if you didn't know, by the way, is the name of my older sister. She also was the director of most of our films, and would instruct my younger sister, brother, and I on how to perform our roles in each scene.

My role, for this movie, was a wild zebra, hiding in the brambles in the middle of the jungle. She sent me out toward "Lincoln's Fort" (A log cabin of sorts that we had thrown together using fallen, very small trees, that came up to about your knees). I found a great location, crouching low inside a patch of briars that had woven themselves naturally together to look like a thistly cave of sorts.

Survivor Madeline followed a lion cub (one of the three kittens of our cat, Maggie's recent litter) into the depths of a forest where she wrestled a crocodile (that was also frequently played with by our younger brother during bath time) and out ran cannibalistic savages (my younger brother and sister in loin cloths) using only her automatic, rapid firing, machine gun rifle (also frequently played with by my brother).

These adventures all took a fair amount of time to capture on camera, since Madeline is a meticulous and detail oriented director. By the time she and the savages had finished fighting, they were tired, and had very little interest, or recollection, of the zebra hiding in the woods.

I would like to paint a visual for you really quickly of my state in those woods. I was wearing black tights (and not the thick, legging type tights that somewhat protect/hide your legs) but sheer, sunday school, stocking tights that were not only themselves itchy, but also added little protection against the leaves, sticks, and thorns that were surrounding me. Additionally, I was stuffed into my old ballet leotard that I was rapidly outgrowing, and wearing an old foam zebra mask that we had been given as a birthday party favor at a zoo themed celebration.

I'm not sure how long I stayed out there in the woods, waiting for my big scene, but it felt like forever. My temper increased as the minutes ticked by, and finally, with much vengeance and fury, I arose from my lair of brambles and began to bush wack my way back home.

Half way there, I run into Survivor Madeline, whose lapse in memory had returned suddenly to her as she was resting back at the house with the cannibals. The camera was present and live so as I approach, snorting and picking my wedgies in fury, you hear the adventurer remark "Oh look! A zebra! With itchy underpants!"

I storm past the cast and crew, and yell "I'm not doing this movie any more!!" To which Survivor Madeline replies with a "Ooooh she's angry" look, at the camera.

Those memories are hilarious to think about now, and SO entertaining to watch, but Survivor Madeline was right when she said I was mad. I was stomping mad, and in those minutes that I spent with my hiney getting stuck with the the sticks and leaves of the wild jungle, I felt as if the most terrible injustice had been done unto me.

I realized recently that this is a common evolvement in my life. Big problems, turning into laughing matters years down the road. This realization, in turn, made me wonder what it was that made something that seemed so terrible turn into such a comical memory.

I think that part of it has to do with the weight of the issue. Things like bruised ego, physical discomfort, and general annoyance can make the immediate moment seem unbearable. But what really tips the scale, I think, is the justification that gets served up. While walking back to the house in my zebra costume, I felt as if my brother and sisters deserved nothing less than getting strung up by their toes, but in retrospect, I can see how harmless it all was.

This made me wonder about real trials. How about looking into the past and seeing the loss of a child? Or a traumatic sexual assault? Or an unhappy marriage? Or natural disaster? Could you ever recall something so painful, so vile, and actually laugh about it?

My gut tells me no, but my hope tells me yes.

When we die, when we depart from this life, and when we enter into eternal life with Christ and our Creator, The Father, then both pain of the moment and the justification will be spoken for. I love the Jesus Story Book Bible. It is a colorfully illustrated book, written for children in such a way that makes the truth and beauty of the Gospel extremely apparent. One of the descriptions that the author uses for Jesus' mission on earth was "to make all the bad things come untrue."

How nice must that be, for every bad memory and painful punch of reality in this lifetime to be erased? But that couldn't be possible. Our existence, in many ways, is our suffering. However Christ does promise to do just that: Revelation 21: 4-5 ‘He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death’ or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.” He who was seated on the throne said, “I am making everything new!”

It isn't just the silly things that can be made right when all is said and done. Because of Christ's gift to us of His life, we have the justification of all pain that we could ever find by looking over our shoulders, and in peace, relinquish the scars that bind us to them with a laugh.

Isaiah 35:10 "And those the LORD has rescued will return. They will enter Zion with singing; everlasting joy will crown their heads. Gladness and joy will overtake them, and sorrow and sighing will flee away."