Skirting the Issue

A true story

I was attending Bible college in Denver at least a few years ago now. Cinderella City, a mall in Englewood, was very new--probably a couple years old. I had gone to the mall by myself, and in the middle of the open floor space a petting zoo had been brought in.

What I remember the most were the baby goats. The were very cute and pretty active. I was bending over to pat some little guy, and suddenly I felt a tug on the back of my skirt. I turned quickly around. There was another little "precious" goat with the whole back of my skirt in its mouth. I yanked on it. It all came out very easily, but I was left with a very large (bigger than a frisbee) circle with a lovely green tint to it.

Of course I was embarrassed. If only someone else had been there with me--we could have smirked and laughed together. By myself I could only look around to see who was watching. There was no one as far as I could tell. I think I went and sat down to let the wet spot dry for a little while, and then I left the mall quickly like a prairie dog running for cover.

Good times and good memories.

A Found Friend

Recently a person I knew back in high school and college made contact with me. He had found my blog and through it my daughter's email. He emailed her and asked her to forward some info to me from him. It was quite a surprise to hear from him since it has been forty, yes forty, years since I have seen him. He and his family had moved from Pueblo to Bemidji, Minnesota in the '60s, and after that he and his brother had come back to Pueblo to visit my family when I was in college. He and I are going to write to each other and talk about old times and old memories.

Memories of the past are both changeable and set in stone. While we remember people, places, times and events, it's possible we don't remember them exactly right. Also I have a tendency not to want to meet up with people whom I haven't seen for a long time because I know that the memories they have of the young me are probably so much better than the reality of the older me is. I don't want to ruin the way people remember me by letting the "now" me interfere.

I guess when we meet old friends in Heaven it won't matter how much we had changed on earth because in Heaven "we shall be like Him for we shall see Him as He is." I look forward to that.

13 Thursday Memories of My Sister

1. One time somebody marked on the window in the house in the condensation there. My mom made Gail and me sit in the living room behind the arm chair to discuss who had done it because one of us was going to be in trouble. My dad came home at lunch and said he did it accidentally.

2. My sister, a neighbor girl and I were in a beauty contest and two neighbor boys were the judges. Gail won. I lost.

3. My sister loved to read. She was a reader before I was. (She was two years younger than I was.)

4. I gave my sister a hard time sometimes, but when anyone else tried to bother her, I was there to take care of her.

5. When Gail was little she had big freckles, glasses and a gap between her two front teeth. She was a beautiful little sister.

6. Gail and I both took piano lessons and because I was older, I learned more quickly. As a result she wasn't very interested in learning piano. As she got older she learned the French horn and took singing lessons. She was a very talented musician.

7. When Gail and I were doing dishes (I washed; she dried), that's when we got into the most trouble. We started throwing water or making a lot of noise. Doing dishes sometimes resulted in spankings. Gail usually got the worst end of the deal because I stood in a gap next to fridge and Gail was right out where Mom could get her more easily.

8. One year when we went to Bible camp, we both got to worrying and crying about whether we were really saved or not. I think we got it settled, at least temporarily.

9. Gail always had more and better friends than I did. She was my main friend most of the time.

10. When we were grown and married, at one point Gary and I were having some pretty serious money problems and didn't have much money for anything. She made sure to get me things I needed.

11. When our children were born, she thought of my children as being partly hers and I thought of her baby as being partly mine. As the kids grew up, we didn't feel as strongly about that.

12. When my parents died, Gail and I and our sister-in-law went through the folks' things. Having Gail there made the job easy.

13. Gail was my best friend and a wonderful Christian person. I loved to spend time with her.

The Lighthouse

There was a song published in 1971 called "The Lighthouse." It is about Christ being the light that stands on the hill to protect the big and small ships. I've always loved this song.

My husband and I got married in 1972, and we have been involved in Christian ministry most of the years since that time. My husband has sung "The Lighthouse" as a special number in most of the churches we have worked in. Well, G. sang that song this morning in church for the first time since we have been attending here. While we were practicing before service, the song brought tears to my eyes--partly because of the words, partly because of its part in our personal history and partly because it reminded me that we've gotten old since we first started singing/playing that song.

Sometimes music, maybe more than other media, brings together a lot of memories. When the words are wonderful and are about Christ the Savior and King, it is very touching.