Thankful for the memories and more…

 

“Praise the Lord, O my soul; all my inmost being praise his holy name. Praise the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits—who forgives all your sins and heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from the pit and crowns you with love and compassion, who satisfies your desires with good things so that your youth is renewed like the eagles.” *

It’s that time of year again…holidays, decorations, get-togethers with family and friends…and time to start thinking about the annual Christmas letter that I like to send out with our Christmas cards.  

Once the creative juices start flowing, things can quickly get out of hand, like the idea of “Life in a Nutshell” to share what transpired in our lives during 2024. How about a page full of walnuts, each large enough to contain a blurb about something that happened or something we did, and a couple of squirrels peeking out from between them?

Not to imply that we are squirrels, nutty or anything like that! I laughed a lot thinking about the idea and even went so far as trying to draw a walnut. Now that was easy, but the squirrels were more of a challenge!

Al is a good photographer and usually takes a number of pictures for every activity. So, I decided to look back through the collection of photos from 2024 to see if there were ten or twelve happenings that could be summed up in a few words and printed inside each walnut shell.

The fact that they were arranged by date made things easier. Looking back at the year’s highlights was enjoyable even though time consuming.

Sometime during this process, I realized that it was only mid-November. Thanksgiving was quickly approaching, and with another whole month to go there would be more highlights to include. Because it seemed impractical, I decided not to use the nutshell idea for our Christmas letter.

Thanksgiving! While looking at the many memories encased in the cell phone pictures, I had completely forgotten about Thanksgiving, and especially about being grateful for God’s many blessings throughout the year.

First and foremost was God’s blessing of love, expressed in so many ways: loving us as we worked through the grief of losing our daughter last November, pouring out compassion through the support of family and friends, forgiving us when we fell short of His holy standard, holding us up in our times of weakness and hearing and answering our prayers.

There were pictures of the All-Saints Day service at church, in memory of members who had passed away since November of 2023. When Shanda’s name was read, her picture was shown on the big screen, a candle lit and a handbell rung. The service was touching, rekindling the hope that we shared with her of eternal life through faith in our Lord Jesus.

Pictures of Shanda’s husband Chris and our four grandchildren were numerous, including birthday parties, Civic Youth Ensembles onstage at Orchestra Hall involving Elliot (13) and Nate (15), a dandy Easter brunch cooked up by Chris, sporting events to watch both boys play on their respective tennis teams. It was a treat when the two older kids, Kendra (25) and Kevin (22), and Al’s sister Ann could join us.

Especially radiant in the family pictures was Grandma Judy, someone who never dreamt that she would one day have grandchildren. What a gift Chris and Shanda have given us!

But, there is someone else who is missing from most of the pictures—the photographer, Al! I took the photos of him wearing a shoulder sling after his shoulder replacement surgery last August. Thankfully the surgery went well and he has had a good recovery.

His volunteer work at the Micah 6 community garden each week during the school year, and our young teacher and classmates in beginning conversational Spanish were also recorded in the cell phone collection.

We celebrated our 42^nd anniversary together recently… forty-two years of “adventures together.” A trip to Clear Lake on a loon-watching expedition, a family reunion with my four siblings and many of their children and grandchildren in Bakersfield coupled with a visit to the coast, and a reunion with friends from UCLA days in Texas were some highlights of our adventures last year.

What a great blessing Al has been in my life! God truly has crowned me with love and compassion and has satisfied my desires with good things. I am grateful!

* Psalm 103:1-5 NIV

(Pictured below: Thanksgiving 2024 at our son-in-law, Chris' house, with our four grandkids: Kendra (26), Kevin (21), Kevin's girlfriend Anna, Nate (15), Elliot (13 1/2), and Chris' new lady friend, Amy. We are blessed!)